research-article

Breaking the barriers to successful refactoring: observations and tools for extract method

Authors:

Emerson Murphy-Hill,

Andrew P. BlackAuthors Info & Claims

ICSE '08: Proceedings of the 30th international conference on Software engineering

Pages 421 - 430

https://doi.org/10.1145/1368088.1368146

Published: 10 May 2008 Publication History

Abstract

Refactoring is the process of changing the structure of code without changing its behavior. Refactoring can be semi-automated with tools, which should make it easier for programmers to refactor quickly and correctly. However, we have observed that many tools do a poor job of communicating errors triggered by the refactoring process and that programmers using them sometimes refactor slowly, conservatively, and incorrectly. In this paper we characterize problems with current refactoring tools, demonstrate three new tools to assist in refactoring, and report on a user study that compares these new tools against existing tools. The results of the study show that speed, accuracy, and user satisfaction can be significantly increased. From the new tools we induce a set of usability recommendations that we hope will help inspire a new generation of programmer-friendly refactoring tools.

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Cited By

AlOmar EMkaouer MOuni A(2024)Behind the Intent of Extract Method Refactoring: A Systematic Literature ReviewIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2023.334580050:4(668-694)Online publication date: 4-Jan-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TSE.2023.3345800
Swain VPanigrahi RSahu KPadhy N(2024)Revealing MOVE METHOD: Machine Learning-driven Real-time Refactoring Identification for Enhanced Software Quality2024 International Conference on Emerging Systems and Intelligent Computing (ESIC)10.1109/ESIC60604.2024.10481609(572-578)Online publication date: 9-Feb-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/ESIC60604.2024.10481609
Thy SCostea AGopinathan KSergey I(2023)Adventure of a Lifetime: Extract Method Refactoring for RustProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36228217:OOPSLA2(658-685)Online publication date: 16-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3622821
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Index Terms

Breaking the barriers to successful refactoring: observations and tools for extract method
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. Development frameworks and environments

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

ICSE '08: Proceedings of the 30th international conference on Software engineering

May 2008

558 pages

ISBN:9781605580791

DOI:10.1145/1368088

General Chair:
Wilhelm Schäfer
University of Paderborn
,
Program Chairs:
Matthew B. Dwyer
University of Nebraska
,
Volker Gruhn
University of Leipzig

Copyright © 2008 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 10 May 2008

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May 10 - 18, 2008

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Overall Acceptance Rate 276 of 1,856 submissions, 15%

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Cited By

AlOmar EMkaouer MOuni A(2024)Behind the Intent of Extract Method Refactoring: A Systematic Literature ReviewIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2023.334580050:4(668-694)Online publication date: 4-Jan-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TSE.2023.3345800
Swain VPanigrahi RSahu KPadhy N(2024)Revealing MOVE METHOD: Machine Learning-driven Real-time Refactoring Identification for Enhanced Software Quality2024 International Conference on Emerging Systems and Intelligent Computing (ESIC)10.1109/ESIC60604.2024.10481609(572-578)Online publication date: 9-Feb-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/ESIC60604.2024.10481609
Thy SCostea AGopinathan KSergey I(2023)Adventure of a Lifetime: Extract Method Refactoring for RustProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36228217:OOPSLA2(658-685)Online publication date: 16-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3622821
AlOmar EIvanov AKurbatova ZGolubev YMkaouer MOuni ABryksin TNguyen LKini AThakur A(2023)Just-in-time code duplicates extractionInformation and Software Technology10.1016/j.infsof.2023.107169158(107169)Online publication date: Jun-2023
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2023.107169
Nikolaidis NMittas NAmpatzoglou AFeitosa DChatzigeorgiou A(2023)A metrics-based approach for selecting among various refactoring candidatesEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-023-10412-w29:1Online publication date: 16-Dec-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-023-10412-w
Iannone ECodabux ZLenarduzzi VDe Lucia APalomba F(2023)Rubbing salt in the wound? A large-scale investigation into the effects of refactoring on securityEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-023-10287-x28:4Online publication date: 24-May-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10664-023-10287-x
Fraivert DLorenz DScholz BKameyama Y(2022)Language Support for Refactorability Decay PreventionProceedings of the 21st ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Generative Programming: Concepts and Experiences10.1145/3564719.3568688(122-134)Online publication date: 29-Nov-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3564719.3568688
Cheng LMurphy-Hill ECanning MJaspan CGreen CKnight AZhang NKammer ERoychoudhury ACadar CKim M(2022)What improves developer productivity at google? code qualityProceedings of the 30th ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering10.1145/3540250.3558940(1302-1313)Online publication date: 7-Nov-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3540250.3558940
Sellitto GIannone ECodabux ZLenarduzzi VDe Lucia APalomba FFerrucci F(2022)Toward Understanding the Impact of Refactoring on Program Comprehension2022 IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering (SANER)10.1109/SANER53432.2022.00090(731-742)Online publication date: Mar-2022
https://doi.org/10.1109/SANER53432.2022.00090
Mumtaz MAhmad NUsman Ashraf MAlghamdi ABahaddad AAlmarhabi K(2022)Iteration Causes, Impact, and Timing in Software Development Lifecycle: An SLRIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2022.318270310(65355-65375)Online publication date: 2022
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3182703
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