Code smell

Subcode Smell, Smell short ( German, [ bad ] smell ') or German malodorous code is understood in programming a construct that suggests a revision of the program source code. According to reports, the metaphor comes Smell of Kent Beck and became widespread by the book Refactoring by Martin Fowler. The term more tangible criteria for refactoring should be described, as would be done by the vague reference to the program aesthetics.

For code - Smell it is first not to bug. Rather, it is functioning program code that is poorly structured. The biggest problem is that the code for the programmer is difficult to understand, so often again new errors with corrections and additions. Code Smell may also indicate a deeper problem that is hidden in the poor structure and is only detected by a revision.

Common Smells

The following described by Martin Fowler and Kent Beck Smells refer to the object-oriented programming, but have obvious correspondences among other programming paradigms.

More Smells and programming anti-pattern

In addition to the mentioned by Fowler Smells there are still a number of code smells that are often mentioned among programming anti-pattern:

Architectural Smells

In addition to the addressed by Beck and Fowler Smells in the source code of applications Smells occur in the architecture of software systems. These were described by Stefan and Martin Lippert Roock.

Among the architectural Smells include among others:

• Cyclic use relationships between packages, classes and subsystems
• Size and layout of the packages or subsystems