GeezerVison

Elixir-Code-Smells is a research-driven catalog of code smells specific to the Elixir programming language. Unlike generic code smell lists, this project identifies issues emerging from Elixir’s functional, concurrent, and process-based nature. Initially compiled via grey literature (blogs, talks, forums), the catalog now includes 23 Elixir-specific smells plus 12 traditional smells adapted to Elixir. Each entry documents the name, category, problem, example, refactoring strategy, and step-by-step treatments. The smells are grouped into two categories: design-related (coarse-grained, harder to detect, affecting architecture/processes) and low-level concerns (fine-grained, often readability and maintainability issues). The catalog evolves with community feedback and contributions, aiming to help developers recognize harmful patterns and apply disciplined refactoring to improve maintainability, testability, and performance in Elixir systems.

Features

• 23 Elixir-specific code smells documented
• Divided into design vs. low-level concerns
• Includes examples of smelly code and their fixes
• Provides refactoring guidelines for improvement
• Backed by literature review and repository mining
• Usable in Livebook (code_smells.livemd) for interactive learning

Project Samples

Categories

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Elixir Code Smells Web Site

Additional Project Details