Are Refactorings safe?

re: Are Refactorings safe?

Darrell — Thu, 26 Feb 2004 18:46:00 GMT

I would prefer warning messages to removing the functionality, especially with a "do not show this message again" option. :) Why limit advanced users in catering to the less-advanced users?

re: Are Refactorings safe?

Olle de Zwart — Thu, 26 Feb 2004 19:00:00 GMT

I agree 100% with Darrell

re: Are Refactorings safe?

Omer van Kloeten — Thu, 26 Feb 2004 19:17:00 GMT

+1 for Darrell.

You should do the same when a user changes from code view to design view and tries to change something in the Windows Forms designer.
If you try and do that in VS.NET 2002/3, either some or almost all of your work is lost and is unrecoverable.
That just sucks.

re: Are Refactorings safe?

Jay Bazuzi [MS] — Thu, 26 Feb 2004 19:34:00 GMT

You mean when you edit in the area that says "Do not edit"? *wink*

re: Are Refactorings safe?

Steve Hall — Thu, 26 Feb 2004 19:36:00 GMT

What about inserting comments that are easy to find, like the // TODO: comments generated by C++ wizards? Something like: // TODO: Inspect the following refactored statement for this potential problem: xxx xxx.

And when these potential problems could occur, I would even want the original statement left as a comment after the above // TODO, to serve as a reference to the old code.

Also, adding project setting options to turn on/off prompts and another one to turn on/off comments would be good to have to control this behavior.

Also, there should probably be at least one project setting checkbox to turn on/off all unsafe refactorings. Ideally, you could have separate checkboxes for each type of refactoring and warn the user when exiting out of the project settings property page that they've chosen some unsafe refactoring methods.

If you choose to implement only prompts, then maybe you could have buttons like: "Skip", "Proceed - No Comment", and "Proceed - Comment" to allow for warning comments to be left behind.

In any case, please don't remove unsafe refactorings, as that dilutes the entire idea of refactoring (taking some risk to improve the code). Instead, offer some assistance if it can't be automatic (safe).

re: Are Refactorings safe?

Ferris Beuller — Thu, 26 Feb 2004 20:16:00 GMT

WInform designer isnt reliable, resx files are a joke that cant refactor too well . I stopped supporting .resx and winform designers.

re: Are Refactorings safe?

Ferris Beuller — Thu, 26 Feb 2004 20:16:00 GMT

Yeah and ANY code thats in a project, I will edit if I damn well see fit. If your tools cant handle it I stop using it.

re: Are Refactorings safe?

Michael Teper — Thu, 26 Feb 2004 20:29:00 GMT

+1 for Darrell

re: Are Refactorings safe?

Frans Bouma — Thu, 26 Feb 2004 20:47:00 GMT

I'm perhaps missing something but what's TDD?

I agree with Darrell btw.

Frans

senkwe — Thu, 26 Feb 2004 20:50:00 GMT

TDD == Test Driven Development. If that was a serious question, it warms my heart that you can still create excellent software (LLBLGenPro) without necessarily requiring TDD (Of course you might have done it that way, just under a diff name)

re: Are Refactorings safe?

Omer van Kloeten — Thu, 26 Feb 2004 21:28:00 GMT

Jay- Which "Do not edit" area are you talking about? I have seen nothing like that...

re: Are Refactorings safe?

Naginata — Thu, 26 Feb 2004 21:35:00 GMT

Wow, I'm glad you posted your link Frans, if I ever clear all the red flags off my desk I'm going to have to take a look at the LLBLGenPro demo :)

My feeling on refactorings is... I hate getting warnings and notifactions popping up at me, because 90% of the time, I already know that what I did was potentially dumb, and I want to do it anyway, and the 10% that I SHOULD read the warning, I never do because I'm trained to just click ok/cancel/ignore/whatever.

I think that leaving comments around can be one way to do it, especially on unbuilt/dirty (as in edited) code. I also think that the new "color coding" features going in to whidbey could be used... maybe have a special color for code that's been changed by the refactoring tool since the last build or something?

re: Are Refactorings safe?

Robert Watkins — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 12:07:00 GMT

Jay,

One option to consider with the refactoring is a preview mode, where the user can inspect the (possibly dangerous) refactoring and decide for themselves.

re: Visual Studio 2005 =

Dan Fernandez's Blog — Mon, 05 Apr 2004 23:59:00 GMT

Whidbey: Are Refactorings safe?

ABS — Fri, 27 Aug 2004 15:56:00 GMT