Summary
Developers who have relied heavily on refactoring support available for static languages are suspicious of the productivity gains promised by dynamic languages.

I have long help a view similar to Ken's post that refactoring support is integral to my productivity. I admit it - I am a refactoring addict! Still, the winds of change are howling and I try to keep abreast of developments in dynamic languages.

A quick search has revealed that Aptana Studio in its Ruby mode has added many of the common refactorings a Java programmer would expect. After installing Aptana and giving it a spin, I don't think that today these features are finished, but when they are done, Ruby will become a much more competitive language for folks addicted to good refactoring support in the IDE. Another interesting development is Duby, written by one of the principals on the JRuby team. It is an attempt to build a language that has Ruby syntax, but provides type inference ala Scala. The main driver for Duby appears to be performance, but surely refactoring support will easier to implement as well.

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About the Blogger

David Vydra specializes in test-driven development, continuous integration, QA automation, and QA/developer collaboration. He has used Agile methods since 1998 and runs the testdriven.com on-line community.