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by politelemon 1320 days ago
Did the term originate from Martin Fowler? Excerpt

> smells don't always indicate a problem

That's a poorly coined term then, if you're having to immediately clarify that it doesn't mean what its common meaning indicates.

2 comments

Google snippet when searching for "code smell martin fowler":

"According to Martin Fowler, code smells are not problematic on their own. They are warning signals that there might be a real problem in the code. For example, long functions are considered a code smell, but not all long functions are necessarily bad or poorly designed. Fowler suggests that junior members of a development team identify code smells and review them together with senior members, who can evaluate if there is really a deeper problem in the code."

https://www.sealights.io/code-quality/the-problem-of-code-sm...

And the first google result, which is Martin Fowler's own website:

"The second is that smells don't always indicate a problem. Some long methods are just fine. You have to look deeper to see if there is an underlying problem there - smells aren't inherently bad on their own - they are often an indicator of a problem rather than the problem themselves."

https://martinfowler.com/bliki/CodeSmell.html

> Did the term originate from Martin Fowler?

Wiki says Kent Beck, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_smell