A Live Environment to Improve the Refactoring Experience

• Type: Article in International Conference Proceedings Book
• Date: 2022

Authors

Fernandes, S (Author) FEUP; Ademar Aguiar (Author) FEUP; André Restivo (Author) FEUP

Conference proceedings International

Title: ACM International Conference Proceeding Series

Pages: 30-37

6th International Conference on the Art, Science, and Engineering of Programming, Programming 2022

21 March 2022 through 25 March 2022

Indexing

Scopus - 30 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00X-K9E

DOI: 10.1145/3532512.3535222

Abstract (EN): Refactoring helps improve the design of software systems, making them more understandable, readable, maintainable, cleaner, and self-explanatory. Many refactoring tools allow developers to select and execute the best refactorings for their code. However, most of them lack quick and continuous feedback, support, and guidance, leading to a poor refactoring experience. To fill this gap, we are researching ways to increase liveness in refactoring. Live Refactoring consists of continuously knowing, in real-time, what and why to refactor. To explore the concept of Live Refactoring and its main components - recommendation, visualization, and application, we prototyped a Live Refactoring Environment focused on the Extract Method refactoring. With it, developers can receive recommendations about the best refactoring options and have support to apply them automatically. This work helped us reinforce the hypothesis that early and continuous refactoring feedback helps to shorten the time needed to create high-quality systems. © 2022 ACM.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific