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The basic problem addressed here is a code smell called "primitive obsession" [0]. Strange name, but worth knowing.

[0]: https://medium.com/the-sixt-india-blog/primitive-obsession-c...

It's a really awful name. Is primitive obsession a good code smell or a bad code smell? And if code smell is a bad thing, and if primitive obsession is a good thing, wouldn't the code smell be lack of primitive obsession?

I don't mean to be pedantic. But it's quite exhausting trying to parse the meaning out of "primitive obsession is a code smell". It took me a while to figure out whether the author considered "primitive obsession" to be a good thing or a bad thing, not least because the they provided an example but not a definition.

The term "code smell" only ever has a negative connotation. The title of the article is also "Primitive Obsession — A Code Smell that Hurts People the Most" -- doesn't seem too difficult to parse...

But the solution being advanced is to prevent inheritance of primitive operators. Implying that Primitive Obsession is a good thing. Unless the author means "primitive type obsession". I imagine they did.

Also see Fowler's book Refactoring [0] where "Primitive Obsession" is listed among many other code smells in Chapter 3.

[0] https://martinfowler.com/books/refactoring.html

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