Re: Ambiguous Refactoring Solution

Bryan,

Re-factoring may be done for different motivation.  Ofcourse,
reuse is one of them.  I definitely see a motivation in splitting a
613 lines of code.  The motivation is the obvious ease in maintenance
that will result because of the small class.

I do understand that smaller size doesn't mean a compact 
functionality, but when you extract a class, the remaining code
and extracted class itself are little more cohesive than they
were before.



Hitesh Sajnani




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09/22/2009 11:38 AM
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[refactoring] Ambiguous Refactoring Solution






 



My issue is that I have a class that is 613 lines of C++ code. This is a 
very fat class, but it's moderately cohesive. I would like to refactor it 
to address the size issue. The problem is that I don't have a specific 
enough problem that the refactoring will solve. This seems to ambiguate 
the refactoring solution. For example, I could do an extract subclass. 
That would be a simple solution. Or, I could extract a strategy class that 
the original class delegates to. This is more complex, but will probably 
be more future proof. Or, I could extract a mediator class. There are many 
choices.

Now, usually I have an immediately pressing context from which to derive a 
refactoring solution. That context is usually of reuse. I can ask myself, 
"how do I refactor this class in order to best facilitate reuse of its key 
elements?" The refactoring solution often very neatly falls out of the 
reuse context. Such a context is absent here.

I could sit and theorize about what I would do in a future reuse context. 
But that seems to be irresponsibly speculative.

Any one have any ideas on how to refactor when the usual driving forces 
are absent?

- Bryan


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