Steven D'Aprano <st...@remove-this-cybersource.com.au> writes: > On Sun, 07 Jun 2009 16:46:23 -0700, Raymond Hettinger wrote: > > > We factor code to eliminate redundancy, but that is not always a > > good idea with an API. The goal for code factoring is to minimize > > redundancy. The goal for API design is having simple parts that are > > easily learned and can be readily combined (i.e. the notion of an > > iterator algebra). > > Wonderfully said! That has articulated something which I only recently > came to appreciate, but couldn't put into words.
As originally defined by Martin Fowler, re-factoring always means the external behaviour is unchanged <URL:http://refactoring.com/>. So, there's no such thing as a re-factoring that changes the API. Anything that changes an external attribute of the code is a different kind of transformation, not a re-factoring. -- \ “Better not take a dog on the space shuttle, because if he | `\ sticks his head out when you're coming home his face might burn | _o__) up.” —Jack Handey | Ben Finney -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
