• SmoothLiquidation@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The code on the left is more readable. It is easy to follow and see what is happening at each step.

    That being said, the code on the right is easier to maintain. If the requirement comes down the pipe that we now need to support a new pizza topping it is easy to jump to the add toppings method using the IDE instead of scanning the entire monolith procedural function. Or if we now need to add support for take-and-bake, we can just modify the small entry method.

    This also assumes that we are not needing to reuse any of these methods. If you want to add toppings to a sandwich or a salad, better write another huge method like the one on the left, or add a ton of nested if/else or switch statements. If you use the style on the right you can reuse the add toppings method without worrying about if you should preheat the oven for a salad.

    The author chose a very simplistic requirement for an example and it is all well and good until you let it fester in a code base for ten years, with multiple interns maintaining it and end up with a huge spaghetti code monster to deal with.

      • wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        On the other hand, not anticipating and preparing for eventualities can be just as bad.

        Nothing quite so permanent as a temporary solution, especially those difficult to maintain.

        • shotgun_crab@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Preventing is better than suffering through high technical debt after a mistake (but don’t get too paranoid, either)