Files
AgentCompany/builtin-skills/software-engineer/clean-code/references/class-small.md
T
ZacharyZhang-NY e74dafcd36 Silence render-disposed spam, unbreak bundled skills, drop board wake
Three independently ugly bugs that all fed the same log flood:

* Electron's `WebFrameMain.send` writes every "Render frame was disposed"
  to stderr via `console.error`. When the worker fans a second
  agent-event past a reloading renderer, we produced thousands of
  identical lines and stalled the main loop on stderr I/O. Added a
  `mainFrame.detached` guard so the send is short-circuited before
  Electron's own catch block fires, and installed a targeted filter in
  `suppress-warnings.ts` (now actually imported from the entry point)
  so the specific `console.error("Error sending from webFrameMain:"…)`
  noise never reaches the terminal. Any other payload still surfaces.

* `dispatchAgentMessage` accepted the human-reader sentinel as a wake
  target when an agent replied to `__board__` — `wakeAgentIfPossible`
  then called `db.getAgent("__board__")`, threw, and the dispatcher
  kept repeating on every send. Strip `HUMAN_SENDER_ID` at
  `resolveMessageWakeTargets`, and keep a defense-in-depth guard in the
  heartbeat so a stray caller (future automation fan-out) cannot
  reintroduce the crash.

* Pi's skills loader rejects any SKILL.md whose frontmatter `name`
  diverges from its parent directory. The four bundled `my-writing-style`
  copies declared `name: writing-style-skill`, so every install emitted
  a warning and dropped the skill. They also lived as orphan gitlinks
  (mode 160000 without .gitmodules), and the global `*.md` gitignore
  hid every other SKILL.md from version control. Fixed the frontmatter
  to match the dir, converted the dangling submodules to plain trees,
  and allowlisted `builtin-skills/**/*.md` so a fresh clone carries the
  catalogue instead of silently losing it.
2026-04-20 08:13:48 -04:00

2.1 KiB

title, impact, impactDescription, tags
title impact impactDescription tags
Keep Classes Small MEDIUM enables comprehension and focused testing class, size, srp, cohesion

Keep Classes Small

Classes should be small. With functions, we measure size by counting lines. With classes, we count responsibilities. A class should have only one reason to change.

Incorrect (large class with multiple responsibilities):

public class SuperDashboard extends JFrame implements MetaDataUser {
    public String getCustomizerLanguagePath() { /* ... */ }
    public void setSystemConfigPath(String path) { /* ... */ }
    public String getSystemConfigDocument() { /* ... */ }
    public void setSystemConfigDocument(String doc) { /* ... */ }
    public boolean getGuruState() { /* ... */ }
    public boolean getNoviceState() { /* ... */ }
    public boolean getOpenSourceState() { /* ... */ }
    public void showObject(MetaObject object) { /* ... */ }
    public void showProgress(String s) { /* ... */ }
    public boolean isMetadataDirty() { /* ... */ }
    public void setIsMetadataDirty(boolean dirty) { /* ... */ }
    public Component getLastFocusedComponent() { /* ... */ }
    // 70+ more methods...
}

Correct (small focused classes):

public class Version {
    public int getMajorVersionNumber() { /* ... */ }
    public int getMinorVersionNumber() { /* ... */ }
    public int getBuildNumber() { /* ... */ }
}

public class Dashboard extends JFrame {
    private final Version version;
    private final UserPreferences preferences;
    private final ProgressIndicator progress;

    public void show() { /* ... */ }
}

public class UserPreferences {
    public Language getLanguage() { /* ... */ }
    public boolean isNovice() { /* ... */ }
    public boolean isGuru() { /* ... */ }
}

public class ProgressIndicator {
    public void showProgress(String message) { /* ... */ }
    public void hideProgress() { /* ... */ }
}

Single Responsibility Principle (SRP): A class should have one, and only one, reason to change.

Reference: Clean Code, Chapter 10: Classes