Codinsky
Code infographics. Cognition-driven.
redux > createStore.js (playground | source).
Motivation
Can't see the forest for the trees.
Immersed in a sea of statements and expressions, it is natural for developers to overlook the higher-level qualities of their code.
Codinsky provides a concise graphical overview of your script.
It can reveal a host of possible issues, and usher you to the land of cleaner, better structured, and more intelligible code.
Example
Below is react-dom > client > ReactDOMComponent.js (playground | source).
With all due respect to Dan Abramov, this is A-HASHTAG-MESS.
Insights:
Excess
Generally speaking, if the sunburst visual is intimidating, so is the script.
There is just too much happening here, length and breadth.
Breaking such script down will:
- Allow readers to better assimilate the code.
- Make navigation easier (our spatial memory is potent, but it goes to waste with scripts as such).
Nested Branching
Testing nightmare.
Nested branches are also hard to comprehend because they consume both working-memory slots and logical reasoning cycles.
If you look at the code, much is wrapped with:
if (__DEV__) {
// Anything from 1 to 100 line block here.
}A few concepts pop to mind:
- Seperation of concerns: dev/production.
- Validation: A cross-cutting concern, often solved with this pattern:
Client > Validation > Implementation. In OOP decorators do this; it's much easier with functional style. - Masking: All these dev blocks are in the way for someone wishing to understand the production code (and likely vice-versa).
So perhaps anything dev should live in its own script. Doing so would leave us with:
Better. With the exception of the flare around 8:00, this is very much a few functions with case statements (or else-if trains in this script).
High Coupling
You many need to zoom to see it, but between 0:00-2:00 it's nearly all import.
This script has loads of imports from quite a few sources, suggesting:
- Perhaps it is doing too much.
- It could be hard to test because you may have too much to mock.
Again, possibly breaking this script down is the way forward.