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I believe, that the usage of preprocessor directives like #if UsingNetwork is bad OO practice - other coworkers do not.
I think, when using an IoC container (e.g. Spring), components can be easily configured if programmed accordingly. In this context either a propery IsUsingNetwork can be set by the IoC container or, if the "using network" implementation behaves differently, another implementation of that interface should be implemented and injected (e.g.: IService, ServiceImplementation, NetworkingServiceImplementation).
Can somebody please provide citations of OO-Gurus or references in books which basically reads "Preprocessor usage is bad OO practice if you try to configure behaviour which should be configured via an IoC container"?
I need this citations to convince coworkers to refactor...
Edit: I do know and agree that using preprocessor directives to change targetplatform specific code during compilation is fine and that is what preprocessor directives are made for. However, I think that runtime-configuration should be used rather than compiletime-configuration to get good designed and testable classes and components. In other words: Using #defines and #if's beyond what they are meant for will lead to difficult to test code and badly designed classes.
Has anybody read something along these lines and can give me so I can refer to?
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Preprocessor directives, such as #define and #ifdef , are typically used to make source programs easy to change and easy to compile in different execution environments. Directives in the source file tell the preprocessor to take specific actions.
The preprocessors are the directives, which give instructions to the compiler to preprocess the information before actual compilation starts. All preprocessor directives begin with #, and only white-space characters may appear before a preprocessor directive on a line.
Examples of some preprocessor directives are: #include, #define, #ifndef etc. Remember that the # symbol only provides a path to the preprocessor, and a command such as include is processed by the preprocessor program. For example, #include will include extra code in your program.
Explanation: False, the preprocessor directive is not mandatory in any c program.
Henry Spencer wrote a paper called #ifdef Considered Harmful.
Also, Bjarne Stroustrup himself, in the chapter 18 of his book The Design and Evolution of C++, frowns on the use of preprocessor and wishes to eliminate it completely. However, Stroustrup also recognizes the necessity for #ifdef directive and the conditional compilation and goes on to illustrate that there is no good alternative for it in C++.
Finally, Pete Goodliffe, in chapter 13 of his book Code Craft: The Practice of Writing Excellent Code, gives an example how, even when used for its original purpose, #ifdef can make a mess out of your code.
Hope this helps. However, if your co-workers won't listen to reasonable arguments in the first place, I doubt book quotes will help convince them ;)
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