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Refactoring private methods is like...?

I'm still struggling away with my book, and was wondering what you thought about this analogy.

I am referring to the problem of testing private\public method, and in that regard I refer to the ease of changeability of private vs. public methods and the contracts they assume of the interacting party (reader\developer\code)

Refactoring methods is like refactoring a book chapter.

In a way, changing a private method is like changing a few sentences in a book chapter. The full chapter still may read exactly the same, but the way it is being delivered may change.

Changing a public method is like changing the chapter’s title I the book. You really want to make sure that you’re not hurting the overall feel and content of the reader.

 

It feels OK to me, perhaps a bit contrived, but what do you think? what is refactoring private\public methods analogous to?

Unit Testing at TechEd Israel 08 - Which talk would you choose?

Scala, NRehersal and Fluent Test Interfaces