extraneous

Diagnose what a reader must hold in mind at once to do a task in a code base, a system or a process, sort it into the load the task needs and the load the structure adds, and name the change that removes the second. Use when something is too complex and nobody can say why, or when someone must keep many things in their head to change it. Use when understanding one piece of code means opening many files, such as a slow review or a deep class hierarchy. Use when a component keeps breeding bugs that take days to find, when newcomers stay confused, when a hire takes months to ship, or when first-timers keep breaking a runbook. Use when asked to write up why code is hard for newcomers. Use even when the question never says complexity: a pasted function with "why is this so hard to follow?" counts. The terms come from cognitive load theory and a practitioner's catalogue of extraneous load in code.

License

MIT