Every so often I open a PR and see something like this:

deployFeature(flag, true, false, true);

I run into it more often than I’d like.

Not because it’s complicated. Just because I have no idea what I’m looking at.

So I click into the function definition, scroll a bit, lose my place, jump back, re-read the line…and only then does it click.

Tiny interruption. Still annoying every time.

I’m not reading code anymore, I’m decoding it

Here’s a simpler one:

createUser(user, true, false);

What does that mean? Is the user an admin? Are we sending a welcome email, or skipping validation?

I don’t know. And at that point I’m not really reading code anymore, I’m decoding it.

There’s a name for this (“flag arguments,” sometimes “boolean blindness”), but honestly I don’t really need the term to feel the problem.

I’ve definitely written this before:

createUser(user, true, false); // isAdmin, sendWelcomeEmail

Which kind of gives the whole thing away.…