Refactoring Is Not Just Clickbait

For many people, refactoring is a simple code transformation they click on in a context menu or via a keyboard shortcut. They can extract, inline, replace, move, rename, etc. at will. The widespread availability of automated refactoring should have made oversized classes and long-winded functions a thing of the past. But it hasn't. Having a tool is only part of the solution: knowing what to do with it and how to use it well is what makes the bigger difference. In this talk, we'll revisit what refactoring is (and isn't), examine what practical and social obstacles refactoring faces, explore the idea that refactoring should be considered a design process and not just a clean-up click, and that most interesting refactorings are not necessarily automated.

Kevlin Henney

Kevlin is an independent consultant, trainer, speaker and writer. He helps individuals and teams improve their skills, codebases and cultures, ensuring people have a place in their architecture. He is co-author of two volumes in the Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture series, editor of 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know and co-editor of 97 Things Every Java Programmer Should Know. He lives in Bristol and online.