We are over generalizers. We shouldn't create abstractions until we see enough concretions.

TL;DR: Don't guess what the future will bring you.

Context

Aristotelian Classification is a big problem in computer science. We tend to classify and name things before gathering enough knowledge and context.

Problems

• Futurology

• Bad designs

Solutions

1. Wait for concretions

2. Refactor late

Sample Code

Wrong

class Rectangle 
 { 
       int length; 
       int breadth; 

       int area() 
       {
         return length * breadth;
       } 
 } 
//We are creating a premature abstraction 
//And misusing is-a relation since a Square "is a" Rectangle

class Square extends Rectangle
 { 
       int length;  

       int area() 
       {  
         return length * length; 
       } 
 }

Right

class Rectangle 
 { 
       int length; 
       int breadth; 

       int area() 
       {
         return length * breadth;
       } 
 }  

class Square 
{ 
       int length;  

       int area() 
       {  
         return length * length; 
       } 
 } 
//Square might-be a Rectangle
//But it does not follow behaves-like relation so we won't go ahead
//and create a strong relation between them
//Maybe they are shapes. We don't have enough examples and protocol yet
//We will not guess until further knowledge

Detection

An abstract class with just one subclass is an indicator of premature classification

Tags

• Bad Design

• Classification

Conclusion

When working with classes, we name abstractions as soon as they appear.

Our rule is to choose good names after the behaviour.

We should not name our abstractions until we name our concrete subclasses.

Relations

More Info

• What is in a name

Credits

Photo by Faye Cornish on Unsplash

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Let us change our traditional attitude to the construction of programs: Instead of imagining that our main task is to instruct a computer what to do, let us concentrate rather on explaining to human beings what we want a computer to do.

Donald E. Knuth

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This article is part of the CodeSmell Series.