Re: Wish list: RPG code refactoring

On 2/14/2013 12:56 PM, Buck Calabro wrote:

Rather than curse the darkness, I'm lighting a candle. I really
would like to have the ability to use Eclipse / RDp to refactor;
especially my legacy code. I hope that other RPG programmers agree
and vote for this idea.

Although I like the idea ... I'm not sure it's entirely practical.

Refactoring relies on the fact that all the source code that is being effected is available to be modified by the user.

Java developers tend to have a "Sandbox" with ALL the source code for an application available to be modified (sometimes called a "Fully Populated Sandbox").

Native IBM i developers tend to work in a library that only has the code that they are working on (sometimes called a "Sparse Sandbox"). The code they are NOT working (but still might be effected) would be higher up on the library list. The libraries higher up on the library list would usually NOT be modifiable.

The problem lies in the fact that, in order to refactor something, you would have to have all the source available in your development library (or sandbox) so that everything gets modified correctly.

Even if you had all the source that could be touched by a refactor available in your sandbox library, RDP would have to open up every single source member to determine if there is a relevant reference to the code being refactored, modify the code, and save it back to the host.

This would have much less impact if you're using IBM i Projects in RDP. But I don't find the IBM i projects paradigm to be all that useful for IBM i developers.

david