How could Reflection not lead to code smells?

Question

I come from low level languages - C++ is the highest level I program in.

Recently I came across Reflection, and I just cannot fathom how it could be used without cod

Answer 1

Without reflection you often have to repeat yourself a lot.

Consider these scenarios:

• Run a set of methods e.g. the testXXX() methods in a test case
• Generate a list of properties in a gui builder
• Make your classes scriptable
• Implement a serialization scheme

You can't typically do these things in C/C++ without repeating the whole list of affected methods and properties somewhere else in the code.

In fact C/C++ programmers often use an Interface description language to expose interfaces at runtime (providing a form of reflection).

Judicious use of reflection and annotations combined with well defined coding conventions can avoids rampant code repetition and increase maintainability.