Inline exception configuration

[kevinrutherford]

Would be nice to be able to disable smells for specific bits of code instead of using the config file. for example...

def my_method #:nosmell[utility_function]
  ...
end

[Raised by S. Brent Faulkner]

[kevinrutherford]

The latest version of ruby_parser provides access to comments immediately preceeding methods etc. Which means configuration could be done like this:

# :reek: exclude from UtilityFunction
def my_method
  ...
end

I haven't verified this technique yet, and clearly I also need to work on the syntax. But the idea definitely has promise!

[kevinrutherford]

And of course, this idea is predicated on fixing #4 first.

[ashmoran]

This would mean that you couldn't use MyClass.reek? and inline smell exclusions at the same time though, right? Seems like this feature would obsolete ParseTree compatibility.

[kevinrutherford]

The simplest form I can think of would simply disable a smell detector when it gets mentioned in the comments above a code element (module, class or method). So for example:

# This method is a :reek:long_method and has :reek:duplication in it.
def bad_method(blah, ...)
  #...
end

I would want to be able to name smells using either CamelCase or ruby_names. I would also want to disable every detector in a class by naming that class; for example :reek:LowCohesion would disable both UtilityFunction and FeatureEnvy.

The other main option would be to allow any full Reek YAML configuration in the header comments. However, I don't think that's needed: if you know a method has a smell, there's no point finessing a config so that Reek hops around that smell; may as well just turn off the detector. (However, there may be a good argument for allowing full YAML config in the headers for classes...)

Thoughts?

[sbfaulkner]

Maybe we can get the best of both (and avoiding having to handle comments differently for different contexts), by making ":reek:smell" the shorthand equivalent of ":reek:smell:{enabled:false}"

[sbfaulkner]

I've got this idea working in the "inline_config" branch of my fork.

You can use either CamelCase or under_scored smell names.

Also, you can disable a smell by simply mentioning it in a comment as you suggested, but it will handle fully specified yaml options if they are provided.

Check it out at your leisure. I've submitted a pull request in case you think it fits the bill.

Cheers.

[kevinrutherford]

This is a really neat idea. I'll merge your code today.

[sbfaulkner]

Is all that's left to do on this (for now) to make it possible to disable subclasses using the smell class? (for example :reek:LowCohesion would disable both UtilityFunction and FeatureEnvy)

[kevinrutherford]

Yes. But for completeness, that also ought to be done for config files and the spec matchers...

[kevinrutherford]

Peeled these last remaining points off into #67. Remainder fixed in commit 69cc0b4575e27f9e94924f767e023463b7e9c35d ready for release 1.2.8.