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How does refactoring help to improve the design of software without changing its behavior?
Refactoring is the process of changing a software system in such a way that it does not alter the external behavior of the code yet improves its internal structure. With refactoring you can take a bad design, chaos even, and rework it into well-designed code.
Is code refactoring same as debugging?
Refactoring is generally motivated by “Code Smell”, while debugging some piece of code or adding some additional functionality to the existing code.
What is not refactoring in Agile?
Common Pitfalls. Refactoring does “not” mean: rewriting code. fixing bugs. improve observable aspects of software such as its interface.
How does refactoring improve the design of an existing code base?
Refactoring is a controlled technique for improving the design of an existing code base. Its essence is applying a series of small behavior-preserving transformations, each of which “too small to be worth doing”. However the cumulative effect of each of these transformations is quite significant.
How does refactoring reduce the risk of introducing errors?
However the cumulative effect of each of these transformations is quite significant. By doing them in small steps you reduce the risk of introducing errors. You also avoid having the system broken while you are carrying out the restructuring – which allows you to gradually refactor a system over an extended period of time.
When to use refactoring instead of a rewrite?
Definitely Yes: “Cosmetic” changes that are not directly related to features (i.e. it’s not billable as a change request). Definitely No: Rewriting large chunks clearly violates the “small, incremental” part. Refactoring is often used as the opposite of a rewrite: instead of doing it again, improve the existing.
What’s the difference between refactoring and premature optimisation?
Changing an algorithm to something much faster is obviously not refactoring, because external behaviour is changed! (Then again, if the effect is never noticeable, perhaps you could call it refactoring after all – and also premature optimisation. 🙂