LKBEN11175: What is software refactoring?
LKB | Created: 02/04/2020 | Version: 0 | Language: EN | Rating: 0 | Outdated: False | Marked for deletion: False
Author: Wim Peeters - Keskon GmbH & Co. KG
Symptom
Software refactoring is a nice word, you want to know what it stands for!
Cause
none
Solution
Software engineering defines refactoring source code as improving it without changing the results. It is a kind of cleaning up in the source code without fixing bugs nor adding new functionality. It is used and done for readability and understandability of the code by documenting, removing dead code, changing the internals or even the design. These changes are transparent for the users of the software. Testing should be done carefully because any changes to the sources can lead to bugs are side-effects who might be hard to find. The use of a version control system (e.g. subversion, git, clearcase, sourcesafe, ...) is recommended.
About the Author
Wim Peeters is electronics engineer with an additional master in IT and over 30 years of experience including time spent in support, development, consulting, training and database administration. Wim has worked with SQL Server since version 6.5. He has developed in C/C++, Java and C# on Windows and Linux in different European countries and different European languages. He writes knowledge base articles to solve IT problems and publishes them on the Lubby Knowledge Platform where he is one of the most important contributors and the main developer.