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Essence and Code Smells

The following table relates code smells to relative essence. Column 'Fowler' refers to the page in Fowler's "Refactoring" book describing this smell. Column 'Wake' refers to the category of smell in Wake's "Refactoring Workbook". Column 'Kind' distinguishes between "Within Class" and "Between Class" smells. Column 'Smell' provides the name of the smell according to Fowler/Wake and may include commonly used aliases. Column 'Essence' describes the correlation of the smell with relative essence: "+" (higher relative essence correlates with more smell), "0" (no direct relationship between relative essence and smell), and "-" (lower relative essence correlates with more smell).

Fowler Wake Kind Smell Essence Comment
page 87b Measured Smells Within Comments / Deodorant 0 + refactoring may involve extract method
page 76b Measured Smells Within Long Method + refactoring involves extract method
page 78b Measured Smells Within Long Parameter List 0 smell is more about coupling than indirection
page 76a Duplication Within Duplicated Code 0 (+) might be positive because duplication is more probable for high complexity/essence code
page 78a Measured Smells Within Large Class 0 except if also "Long Method"
Names Within Type Embedded in Name 0
Names Within Uncommunicative Name 0
Names Within Inconsistent Names 0
Unnecessary Complexity Within Dead Code 0
page 83c Unnecessary Complexity Within Speculative Generality (-) 0 negative if "generality" involves extra indirections/extra abstraction layers
page 81b Data Between Primitive Obsession + introducing classes would introduce non-"essential" methods for encapsulation
page 86b Data Between Data Class (-) 0 might be negative, but it could also be about coupling (methods exist in some other class)
page 81a Data Between Data Clumps 0 + grouping data into a class might just move fields, or might introduce a new class with encapsulation
page 87a Inheritance Between Refused Bequest 0 + otherwise new super class might be introduced, so there could be a new constructor
page 85b Inheritance/Responsibility Between Inappropriate Intimacy 0 + extra new class could have appeared
page 83b Inheritance Between Lazy Class / Freeloader - refactoring may involve inline class; class has to be eliminated, thus all its methods; because it was lazy, it probably had no loops
page 80b Responsibility Between Feature Envy 0 + otherwise method would be moved or extracted
page 84b Responsibility Between Message Chains 0 + refactoring may involve extract method
page 85a Responsibility Between Middle Man - refactoring may involve inline method
page 79a Accommodating Change Between Divergent Change + refactoring involves extract class
page 80a Accommodating Change Between Shotgun Surgery - 0 refactoring may involve inline class
page 83a Accommodating Change Between Parallel Inheritance Hierarchies 0
page 82 Conditional Logic Within Switch Statements / Simulated Inheritance + refactoring involves extract method and new classes
page 84a Data Between Temporary Field + refactoring involves extract class
page 85c Duplication Within Alternative Classes with Different Interfaces 0 + refactoring may involve extract super class
page 86a Library Classes Between Incomplete Library Class 0 + refactoring may introduce foreign method
Duplication Within Magic Number 0
Conditional Logic Within Null Check 0
Conditional Logic Within Complicated Boolean Expression 0
Conditional Logic Within Special Case 0 + may lead to special case being handled separately
Accommodating Change Between Combinatorial Explosion 0 (+) might be positive, because duplication is more probable for complex/essential code

Analysis

Of the 31 smells, 3 strongly indicate low relative essence, 2 weakly indicate low relative essence, 2 weakly indicate high relative essence, and 14 strongly indicate high relative essence. This means that most of the commonly known smells represent issues where the relative essence is too big. This may be an indication that in practice, most problems with software are related to the lack of modularization. Nevertheless, there are some smells (especially "Lazy Class/Freeloader", "Middle Man", and "Shotgun Surgery") that indicate that the relative essence is too low and the amount of indirection too high.