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Refactorbation

Filed Under Thought Stuff

re·fac·tor·ba·tion – [re-fak-ter-bey-shuhn]
–noun

  1. To stimulate oneself through endless refactoring exercises towards unattainable perfection

Synonyms: codesterbation


Like everyone young and dumb, there was a time I would refactorbate all the time. The majority of the time I would refactorbate at night, but occasionally in the morning as well. I knew at some level it was healthy, but at the rate I was going I was sure to grow hair on my keyboard.

Now I am older and wiser. I know how to better architect solutions, and I know when to quit refactoring and ship. Sometimes I still do…just for fun…when no one is looking.

But I am very surprised when I watch some of my peers brag about refactorbating. I wince at comments such as “I put 9 overloads on that method just in case someone ever needed them…”. Gross, keep it at home.

That is why I was happy to see this quote from a post called Perfection: Necessary Act

The real trick is in knowing the difference between an act of perfection and an act of codesterbation. When you stop making things better for either solubility, expressiveness, or testability, and you’re still refactoring, you might be in the weeds. – Scott Belware

If you are refactoring to solve problems you don’t yet have, you are refactorbating. Knock it off, your mother might be crying somewhere.

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Comments

8 Responses to “Refactorbation”

  1. Scott Bellware on August 21st, 2007 4:26 pm

    I like your term better than mine! Gonna “borrow” it from you 🙂

  2. Refuctoring / Refactorbating at Shaun MacRae on December 18th, 2007 11:19 am

    […] Refactoring variations: Refuctoring and Refactorbating. Filed under Geek.  | var blogTool = “WordPress”; var blogURL = […]

  3. ryan on April 17th, 2008 8:54 pm

    That’s hilarious! No wonder my keys are always sticking…

  4. La Veille Technologique et le Génie Logiciel « Codingly on May 9th, 2008 2:54 pm

    […] une force pour n’importe quel informaticien. Laissons le précepte du YAGNI aux adeptes de la refactorbation, car il n’est pas applicable à la veille technologique. Je me vois mal étudier uniquement […]

  5. LisaG on October 1st, 2008 11:25 am

    I can’t recall the last time I laughed this much. It’s so true and so naughty. Thanks.

  6. Mark on November 5th, 2008 8:55 pm

    Great word coinage. However, don’t mistakenly assume that all refactoring is refactorbation. Refactoring is an important part of improving software quality by, among other things, making code more maintainable, fixing bugs, and increasing a programmer’s familiarity with a legacy code base that may have been (poorly) written by somebody else.

  7. Max Pool on November 5th, 2008 9:02 pm

    @Mark –

    Nope, not all refactoring is refactorbation…

    http://www.codesqueeze.com/refactoring-code-is-like-doing-the-dishes/

  8. Refuctoring / Refactorbating at Shaun MacRae on January 1st, 2009 9:54 am

    […] beware of the guy Refactorbating in the cube next to you. Filed under Uncategorized.  | var blogTool = […]

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