Nell Shamrell

Nell Shamrell-Harrington codes, writes about software development, and speaks about Ruby and technology in general. She's dedicated to learning and applying new technical skills and paying it forward by teaching and mentoring others.

Full Stack Fest 2015

Nell Shamrell

First Do No Harm: Surgical Refactoring

When a developer comes into an existing code base the urge to refactor can be overwhelming. However, legacy code bases - even those created and maintained with the best intentions - often resemble living organisms more than modular machines. Rather than simply taking out a module and replacing it with a better one, we have to surgically slice int…