Re-approaching the refactoring Rubicon

Abstract

Fowler saw the availability of automated support for the Extract Method refactoring in modern IDEs as an indication for the crossing of the refactoring Rubicon. In spite of the advances in refactoring technology, it seems that this Rubicon has not yet been crossed, and refactoring support in modern IDEs leaves a lot to be desired. We performed a case study in which we converted a Java servlet to use the model-view-controller pattern, using as much automated support as available. We found that while the whole conversion could be described as a series of refactorings, most of these were inadequately supported by the IDE, and some were not supported at all. Based on these findings, we outline the requirements from a refactoring framework that will support much more of the conversion process, and will also enable the composition of small refactorings into larger ones. Copyright © 2008 ACM.