Is Automatic Refactoring Possible in Dynamic Languages?

Question

Perhaps I am limited by my experience with dynamic languages (Ruby on Netbeans and Groovy on Eclipse), but it seems to me that the nature of dynamic languages makes it impossible to refactor (renaming methods, classes, pushing-up, pulling-down, etc.) automatically.

Is it possible to refactor AUTOMATICALLY in any dynamic language (with any IDE/tool)? I am especially interested in Ruby, Python and Groovy, and how the refactoring compares to the 100% automatic refactoring available in all Java IDEs.

Answer 1

Given that automatic refactoring was invented in a dynamic language (Smalltalk), I would have to say "Yes".

In particular, John Brant, Don Roberts and Ralph Johnson developed the Refactoring Browser which is one of the core tools in, for instance, Squeak.

My Google-fu is weak today, but you could try find this paper: Don Roberts, John Brant, and Ralph Johnson, A Refactoring Tool for Smalltalk, "The Theory and Practice of Object Systems", (3) 4, 1997.