Posted by Sanders Kaufman on 08/29/07 18:28

Jerry Stuckle wrote:

> Yes and no. Refactoring typically is more limited - for instance,
> recoding a function, set of functions, class, etc., without having to
> change code which calls those functions or class members.

I've been having a LOT of fun with that word ever since that discussion
we had about it.

The other day I was talking to a fellow who wanted to know how I was
doing with this framework. He liked what I've said about it so far, and
may very well pony up a few KiloBucks for me to mash his website into my
framework.

He asked me to tell him about whatever I was currently doing with it and
I said that I had to "refactor" it to make sure that I could later add
other DBMS's to it and the user not have to change their code. (That's
the correct use of "refactor", right?)

Man! The look he gave me!

I saw he was nervous, so I laughed and said, "no what I mean is..." and
then explained what I was doing in better detail.

It turns out that "refactor" is a scary word for him - one that's caused
him serious coin in the past. He said it's like when politicians say
they're leaving office "to spend time with my family"

He's not a technie; he's a businessman. So while he may not understand
the nitty-gritty of programming - he know's when he's being bull-shitted.


> I do the same. I don't even talk about "rewriting" the code. I don't
> even talk about architecture, and the only strategy is that which has to
> be in place to get the job done. Rather, I talk about the benefits he
> will receive from whatever I'm going to do.

Amen.


> And I also agree there is no "extreme programming". There are "extreme
> sports", which can only be done by someone in excellent physical
> condition, lots of practice and a willingness to die.

I think of these buzz-word processes as Legacy business logic. A
pattern that may have worked will in the 20th century, when IT was new,
but not so much in the present day.

Now that computers, for most people, are not scary, impossibly complex,
proprietary things - folks are more comfortable hearing the real talk -
instead of the talk about the talk.

[Back to original message]