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What in the world is "Refactoring?"

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mouser:
when an IDE says it has "Refactoring" tools, it means it has a bunch of separate small little ways it can help you refactor/modify your code, like worstje said.  these may range from simple things like renaming functions, adding arguements to functions, splitting up functions, etc.

CodeTRUCKER:
when an IDE says it has "Refactoring" tools, it means it has a bunch of separate small little ways it can help you refactor/modify your code, like worstje said.  these may range from simple things like renaming functions, adding arguements to functions, splitting up functions, etc.
-mouser (January 03, 2011, 04:49 PM)
--- End quote ---

@mouser and worstje
In y'alls (I'm from Texas) collective experience, are these "refactoring tools" a real valid and usable bonus or just marketing hype, smoke and mirrors, etc.?

mouser:
it really depends on what kind of coder you are and how well you take to these new fangled IDE fancy tools.

if you're anything like me, it's too late for your brain to really make good use of them.  when my code needs to be improved i do it by hand or with dead simple search and replace stuff.  i've just never really learned to make use of refactoring tools and don't see myself doing so.

f0dder:
An explanation of "refactoring" can be boiled down to: "cleaning up source code".

Refactoring.com is apparently Fowler's, he's the guy behind the "original refactoring book". One of the ideas of that book is that you don't "just" clean up code - you clean it up as a series of small, well-defined and named tasks... and run your code tests after each task.

It's those individual tasks that a good IDE with refactoring support can do; it still needs your "architect" brain to direct the bigger picture.

CodeTRUCKER:
...
It's those individual tasks that a good IDE with refactoring support can do; it still needs your "architect" brain to direct the bigger picture.
-f0dder (January 03, 2011, 05:00 PM)
--- End quote ---

Thanks to you,worstje and mouser for the simple definitions.  I did kind of figure it wasn't a "check your brain at the door" kind of thing.  The variables for those variables would be far too variable. :P

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