On Refactoring - 春雪(Syskuku's Blog)

Every year, some people claim that Xiaomi's annual refactoring is just false advertising. Setting aside the fact that "refactoring" is a term blown out of proportion by online hype accounts that many take at face value—they stitch together an image of Xiaomi refactoring memory one year and rewriting the HyperOS runtime the next to fabricate a narrative of yearly refactoring—even if Xiaomi did announce refactoring every year, I wonder if those people truly understand what refactoring means. Refactoring each year is bound to be different; it's not like the neighbor who claims to remove Android code every year. Removing Android code can only be said once, because once it's gone, it's gone—you can't bring it back just to remove it again. Refactoring means a major overhaul of the underlying system; that's what it is, and it gets better year after year. It's like rewriting an essay—if the rewrite is better, that's refactoring. But being better doesn't mean it's perfect; when you write it a second time, it's definitely better than the last. I don't know what goes through your heads, but think things through before you speak.