Code Smell 92 - Isolated Subclasses Names

If your classes are globals, use fully qualified names

TL;DR: Don't use abbreviations in subclasses

Problems

Readability

Mistakes

Solutions

Rename your classes to provide context

Use modules, namespaces or fully qualified names

Sample Code

Wrong

abstract class PerserveranceDirection { 
}

class North extends PerserveranceDirection {}
class East extends PerserveranceDirection {}
class West extends PerserveranceDirection {}
class South extends PerserveranceDirection {}

//Subclasses have short names and meaningless outside the hierarchy
//If we reference East we might mistake it for the Cardinal Point

Right

abstract class PerserveranceDirection { 
}

class PerserveranceDirectionNorth extends PerserveranceDirection {}
class PerserveranceDirectionEast extends PerserveranceDirection {}
class PerserveranceDirectionWest extends PerserveranceDirection {}
class PerserveranceDirectionSouth extends PerserveranceDirection {}

//Subclasses have fully quallified names

Detection

Automatic detection is not an easy task. We could enforce local naming policies for subclasses.

Code Smell 11 - Subclassification for Code Reuse

Maxi Contieri ・ Oct 30 '20 ・ 2 min read

#oop #codenewbie #tutorial

More Info

What is in a name?

MAPPER

Credits

Photo by Edvard Alexander Rølvaag on Unsplash

The programmer's primary weapon in the never-ending battle against slow system is to change the intramodular structure. Our first response should be to reorganize the modules' data structures.

Frederick P. Brooks