[white-flame]

This whole campaigned is misguided.

"Bad IFs" are a code smell, and they're being scapegoated when the real problems are management demanding that simple hackish prototypes & tests be deployed into production, management that doesn't allow time for refactoring, and poor programmers who think that "bad IFs" are good code.

But the main site also doesn't do any reasonable job of defining what a "Bad IF" even is.

The crux of the matter is that programmers need time to craft the details of a project to avoid or correct technical debt. These sort of reactions just point out one tiny portion of technical debt itself and doesn't solve any fundamental problems at all.

(and yeah, I known I'm ranting against the Anti-IF campaign, not the particular take on the linked site. But this article just seems to parameterize the exact same parameters that are branched on anyway.)

[lifeisstillgood]

I think that aiming at the management of the coders and the business users is putting the emphasis in exactly the right place. Once we get to womdering if eliminating IF stmts will help, we have passed by so many opportunities for 10x value delivery.

[bunderbunder]

The "technical debt" metaphor gets so much better if you take the analogy more literally than most people do. Like for financial debt, the optimal amount is not necessarily zero. Oftentimes taking on or carrying debt allows you to generate more profit than you could by avoiding it or paying it down.

That said, most places I've worked manage it poorly. Few people really understand that, just like financial debt, it's something that needs to be taken on and managed in a mindful and deliberate manner.

[eru]

Also, if you do take the finance metaphor, going into debt is not good by itself. It's the investments you make with that debt that are good, and potentially outweigh the burden of debt. (And can be cheaper than equity financing.)

Going back to programming: debt-fuelled programming should buy you something, eg speed to market, and is not a good in itself.

[nilved]

If statements are code smells in languages that are not strictly imperative. Is an if statement literally the only option? If not, that's a "Bad If."