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Sep 4, 2017 at 19:25
Fascinating paper on refactoring: extract method is most common, most refactoring is manual, and tool trust is low!
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Why We Refactor? Confessions of GitHub Contributors
Why We Refactor? Confessions of GitHub Contributors
Refactoring is a widespread practice that helps developers to improve the maintainability and readability of their code. However, there is a limited number of studies empirically investigating the actual motivations behind specific refactoring operations applied by developers. To fill this gap, we monitored Java projects hosted on GitHub to detect recently applied refactorings, and asked the developers to ex- plain the reasons behind their decision to refactor the code. By applying thematic analysis on the collected responses, we compiled a catalogue of 44 distinct motivations for 12 well-known refactoring types. We found that refactoring activity is mainly driven by changes in the requirements and much less by code smells. Extract Method is the most versatile refactoring operation serving 11 different purposes. Finally, we found evidence that the IDE used by the developers affects the adoption of automated refactoring tools.
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Feb 5, 2026 at 09:59
3
Test code is total: we require it to always terminate or it's a failure! It also typically has 100% line and branch coverage. I feel way less nervous about refactoring tests, you can always just run them.
Oct 10, 2024 at 05:15
It feels like rename is by far the most important refactoring operation. If I had an IDE with only one refactoring, I think I'd want rename.
Sep 15, 2024 at 06:06
... and my third refactoring with Cursor changed some function calls that I didn't want it to modify. Subtle. I've had the most success with AI coding tools when I know exactly what I want the output to look like.