70s first tutorial: getCurrentDate(). Piece of Cake. We are in the 20s Time is global no more
TL;DR: Don't user new Date()
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Coupling
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Fragile Tests
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Timezone Problems
- Use Dependency injection to decouple time source.
var today = new Date();
var ouagadougou = new Location();
var today = myTimeSource.currentDateIn(ouagadougou);
function testGivenAYearHasPassedAccruedInterestsAre10() {
var mockTime = new MockedDate(new Date(2021, 1, 1));
var domainSystem = new TimeSystem(mockTime);
// ..
mockTime.moveDateTo(new Date(2022, 1, 1));
// … You set up the yearly interest rate
assertEquals(10, domainSystem.accruedInterests());
}
We should forbid global functions policies. We need to couple to accidental and pluggable time sources.
- Globals
Date.today() , Time.now()
, and other global system calls are coupling smell.
Since tests must be in full environmental control. We should easily set up time, moved it back and forth etc.
Date and Time classes should only create immutable instances. It is not their responsibility to give the actual time. This violates Single Responsibility Principle.
The passage of time is always scorned by programmers. This makes objects mutable and designs poor and coupled.
Code Smell 18 - Static Functions
In programming, the hard part isn't solving problems, but deciding what problems to solve.
Paul Graham
Software Engineering Great Quotes
This article is part of the CodeSmell Series.