Refactoring Code with GenAI

Software developers write in programming languages to instruct a computer to perform specific tasks. The source code in the programming language is translated by a compiler or interpreter into executable computer instructions. One might conclude that programming is only artificial communication with a computer, but it is much more than that.

The true, implicit goal of a computer program is to communicate with other developers. Once code is written, it is frequently read many times, hours, weeks, or even years later, by the same or other developers. The developers will read the code to understand it, debug it, and integrate it with other systems. The goal must be to communicate with the precision required by software, while maintaining clarity for future developers.

Thus, code is written once but read many times. Before GenAI code generation became common, Python practitioners invested significant effort into code quality and style. Today, we can...