Ponderings on Odoriferous Syntactical Constructifications

(AKA: "Thoughts on code smells" and how "high brow" they have become)

We have a habit of talking about "code smells" to indicate patterns and practices that our experience has shown can be problematic. Many of these "smells" are backed by a lot of data and really are legitimate problems to avoid. These are constructs and tools that often have few legitimate uses. But many so called "smells" really aren't significantly bad. Let's dive into some of the nuance here and talk a bit about why our word choice matters.