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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

1.7 KiB

title, impact, impactDescription, tags
title impact impactDescription tags
Minimize Function Arguments HIGH reduces cognitive load and testing complexity func, arguments, parameters, simplicity

Minimize Function Arguments

The ideal number of arguments for a function is zero (niladic). Next comes one (monadic), followed closely by two (dyadic). Three arguments (triadic) should be avoided where possible.

Incorrect (too many arguments):

// Flag arguments are bad - function does different things
public void render(boolean isSuite) {}

// Four arguments - hard to remember order
public Circle makeCircle(double x, double y, double radius, String color) {}

// Order matters and is easy to confuse
public void assertExpectedEqualsActual(String expected, String actual) {}

Correct (minimized arguments):

// Separate functions instead of flag
public void renderForSingleTest() {}
public void renderForSuite() {}

// Encapsulate related arguments in objects
public Circle makeCircle(Point center, double radius, Color color) {}

// Even better - use a builder for many optional params
Circle circle = Circle.builder()
    .center(new Point(0, 0))
    .radius(5.0)
    .color(Color.RED)
    .build();

// Self-documenting method name
assertThat(actual).isEqualTo(expected);

Why fewer arguments?

  • Easier to understand
  • Easier to test (fewer combinations)
  • Less chance of argument order errors

Acceptable monadic forms:

  • Asking a question: boolean fileExists(String path)
  • Transforming input: InputStream openFile(String path)
  • Events: void passwordAttemptFailed(int attempts)

Reference: Clean Code, Chapter 3: Functions