An ontology-based taxonomy of bad code smells
Yung-Pin Cheng, Jiue-Ren Liao · 2007
Bad or spaghetti code is a jargon used among programmers to refer to source that is difficult to maintain, evolve, and change. We consider them as symptoms of poor software engineering practice. This paper presents an application of concept of ontology to develop a bad smell taxonomy. We develop a taxonomy hierarchy which categorizes bad smells from the viewpoints of refactoring. A more formal format is introduced to define the bad smells more concretely. Besides, the relations among bad smells, called semantic relations in ontology terms, are explored and established. The ontology can be used for reasoning in other applications.