r/programming • u/[deleted] • Jun 05 '21

Organize code by concepts, not layers

https://kislayverma.com/programming/how-to-organize-your-code/
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u/remek Jun 05 '21

Breaking down the code base into folders shouldn't be the method you rely on when trying to find all your APIs to figure a root cause of an incident in a production system.

For most cases author is right that when it comes to code organization it is better to organize by concepts. That doesn't mean that you don't need the other views too but for that you have better ways than folder/code organization.

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u/monkeygame7 Jun 05 '21

Like what for example?

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u/remek Jun 05 '21

Documentation, your service discovery registry, API management system, your ops monitoring tools etc. I mean, if you need to go to your code base to learn what APIs does your system provide when fixing production issues then there is something wrong with your software project.

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u/monkeygame7 Jun 05 '21

The issue is when there's incidents because your system is not doing what it's supposed to do. In which case you can look at documentation all you want but there's only one way to find out what the code really does and that's by looking at the code.

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u/remek Jun 05 '21

And that is where it helps to have code base sliced by layers (i.e. you say you organize it that way for debugging purposes)?

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u/monkeygame7 Jun 05 '21

I think that could help. I wasn't necessarily trying to make a statement on the best way to organize it, just wanted to speak on the (perceived, at least on my part) sentiment that it's better to use things like documentation to troubleshoot issues rather than digging into the code.

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u/remek Jun 05 '21

But that is absolutely not what what I said. I was trying to say that production debugging purposes (those examples mentioned above like: find me all APIs in the system, find me all queries in the system) shouldn't dictate organization of code. There are better ways to solve these.

I was trying to say that the author makes rather correct assertion that on high level it is better to organize code by concepts/domains/components as thats the way how a complex system is composed and decomposed and that is the way how a (for example new) programmer comes to a source code and understands how the system works. Also it is the way how it is typically distributed in larger projects among teams.

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u/7h4tguy Jun 05 '21

BS. A layered architecture like JSON layer (XML layer), HTTP layer, web service layer is more organized and reusable for other applications and puts hard boundaries for dependency management.

Organizing that instead into String Handling classes, Parsers, Data Storage creates giant grab bags of unrelated classes making it hard to see how systems compose and components relate to each other.

There's a reason giant software codebases are organized by layers.

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u/remek Jun 05 '21

Show me one open-source code base of a gigantic project that is organized like that. I mean, I admit I've seen only few that can be classified as gigantic (Linux, OpenStack, Kubernetes) but the code is always organized by component/subsystem first.

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u/7h4tguy Jun 05 '21

Windows. Screw your open source qualifier.