[josm-dev] Spaghetti code

[Frederik Ramm]

Igor,

Igor Shubovych wrote:
> I really do not want to abuse anybody, but ... this is spaghetti code.

We don't have GOTOs though.

I suggest you read, and try to understand, the discussion that begins 
with this message:

http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/josm-dev/2008-August/001433.html

The essence of that is:

1. JOSM is not a classic, by-the-book Java application;
2. We're happy to improve JOSM but we try not to raise the bar too high 
for newcomers without Java experience;
3. If you want clean design, contribute to JOSM-NG instead.

You are preaching basic OO design rules to us; there's no need to, we 
know them. We are disregarding them on purpose, which has a price (your 
slightly overexaggerated "55 places to edit", which by the way modern 
UIs will often do for you) and also has a benefit (simplicity, and no 
need to bloat the code with hundreds of accessors).

JOSM differs from what you have learned or read about OO design not 
because its makers were stupid BASIC programmers but because its makers 
made a conscious decision to do things differently.

That being said, there are definitely cases where JOSM would benefit 
from using a classic OO approach, like the bit about the status message 
you quoted. We're very open to changing these things on a case-by-case 
basis; we just don't want wholesale refactoring "just because this is 
how OO is taught at school".

If you're willing to work with JOSM as it is today, slowly improving it 
where there is a need, then you're welcome to help. If you think JOSM is 
a pile of crap that needs to be rewritten completely because its 
programmers are obviously idiots, then you are definitely not alone, but 
there will be little you can do to help JOSM; you might think about 
helping the JOSM-NG effort which is like JOSM, but leaner, meaner, 
faster, and with a clean architecture. It doesn't have the rich feature 
set yet but if enough people make the switch, it will.

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"