code smell

Code smell is also a term used by agile programmers.

The copy and paste approach often leads to large methods (a bad code smell).

Thus, a code smell is a driver for refactoring.

Refactoring is usually motivated by noticing a code smell.

Call super is a code smell or anti-pattern of some object-oriented programming languages.

In computer programming, code smell is any symptom in the source code of a program that possibly indicates a deeper problem.

Determining what is and is not a code smell is often a subjective judgment, and will often vary by language, developer and development methodology.

Since the LoD exemplifies a specific type of coupling, and does not specify a method of addressing this type of coupling, it is more suited as a metric for code smell as opposed to a methodology for building loosely coupled systems.

Often the deeper problem hinted by a code smell can be uncovered when the code is subjected to a short feedback cycle where it is refactored in small, controlled steps, and the resulting design is examined to see if there are any further code smells that indicate the need of more refactoring.