Which problem is it solving for you ? Do you see any performance gains
that I'm missing ? Do you believe if this is making any code easier to
understand ? Could you please provide failing tests which are to be
fixed by the refactoring in question ?

Thanks.

On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 6:15 PM, DWF <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Given that the GSOC Rails projects involve some ActiveRecord
> refactorings, doesn't this type of improvement make sense?
>
> --dwf
>
> On Mar 8, 12:42 pm, Niels Ganser <[email protected]> wrote:
>> I realize us Rubyists don't necessarily think the classic works in the
>> field such as Fowler's "Refactoring" apply to our day-to-day coding in
>> their entirety but in this case I fully agree with Fowler when he says
>> "You don't decide to refactor, you refactor because you want to do
>> something else, and refactoring helps you do that other thing".
>>
>> I myself have had my faire share of frustration when browsing around in
>> the AR associations code and as anyone who has ever done more than a few
>> hours of programming knows confusion always – and I mean always! – leads
>> not only to more bugs but also hinders in adding features to the
>> confusing code.
>>
>> I'd argue those "odd bugs"Adam mentioned have already been there. Many
>> times. There is no *one* bug that shouts "I'm here because this code
>> needs to be refactored!", it usually is much more subtle than this.
>> Years of experience generally show though that the harder code is to
>> understand, the more buggy it will be.
>>
>> Now *if* there is fantastic test coverage and *if* someone is willing
>> and able (regarding skills and free time) to give it a shot, I say go
>> for it: Fork, refactor, push, and show us!
>>
>> IMHO there's never a better time to refactor than right *now*. Besides
>> yesterday of course..
>>
>> Best,
>> Niels
>>
>> Pratik wrote:
>> >> More importantly, the added complexity created by importing all of the
>> >> collection logic and interface into a non-collection association class
>> >> just adds to rigidity and potential for odd bugs in the future.
>>
>> > Let's do this refactoring when that actually happens.
>>
>> >> What concerns me most about this is that resistance to cleaning up
>> >> code likely implies a lack of confidence in the test suite.
>> >> Considering how core associations are to Rails, and the not
>> >> insignificant amount of cruft in that code, there should be tests on
>> >> associations like fat kids on an ice cream truck.  What are you
>> >> concerned the changes will break, given that all the tests pass?
>>
>> > There is no lack of confidence. But I'm not very much in favour of
>> > refactoring without any performance gains or any obscure bug fixes.
>> > Refactoring like these makes almost all the relevant patches in LH
>> > stale and screws up the history. I just don't think the patch in
>> > question here is worth that.
>
> >
>



-- 
Cheers!
- Pratik
http://m.onkey.org

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