Zaemis

Code metrics are interesting creatures. Some are just raw numbers, such as depth of inheritance or lines of code, while others are a bit more subjective, like a maintainability index. But ultimately they are all meaningless without broader context and an understanding of the code. As a brief example, consider the following C# function which accepts a string and returns the 40-character hexadecimal representation of the string's SHA1 hash . public static String Sha1(String text) { using (SHA1Managed sha1 = new SHA1Managed()) { Byte[] textBytes = Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(text); Byte[] hashBytes = sha1.ComputeHash(textBytes); return Convert.ToBase64String(hashBytes); } } The function accomplishes one task. Variables are defined closest to their usage. Function calls are clear and do not nest other function calls. Even using ( ) is used so the run-time can automatically dispose of the SHA1Managed resource. Yet a scan using Visual Studio 2010 ...