Is a strategy for code smell assessment long overdue?

Abstract

Code smells reflect code decay and, as such, developers should seek to eradicate such smells through application of 'deodorant' in the form of one or more refactorings. However, a dearth of studies exploring code smells either theoretically or empirically suggests that there are reasons why smell eradication is neither being applied in anger, nor the subject of significant research. In this paper, we present three studies as supporting evidence for this claim. The first is an analysis of a set of five, open-source Java systems, the second an empirical study of a sub-system of a proprietary, C# web-based application and the third, a theoretical enumeration of smell-related refactorings. Key findings of the study were first, that developers seemed to avoid eradicating superficially 'simple' smells in favor of more 'obscure' ones; second, a wide range of conflicts and anomalies soon emerged when trying to identify smelly code. Finally, perceived effort to eradicate a smell may be a key factor. The study highlights the need for a clearer research strategy on the issue of code smells and all aspects of their identification and measurement.