Refactoring edit history of source code

摘要

This paper proposes a concept for refactoring an edit history of source code and a technique for its automation. The aim of our history refactoring is to improve the clarity and usefulness of the history without changing its overall effect. We have defined primitive history refactorings including their preconditions and procedures, and large refactorings composed of these primitives. Moreover, we have implemented a supporting tool that automates the application of history refactorings in the middle of a source code editing process. Our tool enables developers to pursue some useful applications using history refactorings such as task level commit from an entangled edit history and selective undo of past edit operations.