Even code that is free of smells may be at high risk
of forming them. In such cases, developers can either
perform preventive refactoring in order to reduce this
risk, or leave the code as is and perform corrective
refactoring as smells emerge. In practice, however,
developers usually avoid preventive refactoring during
the development phase, and when code smells eventually
form, other developers who are less acquainted with
the code avoid the more complex corrective refactoring.
As a result, a refactoring opportunity is missed, and the
quality and maintainability of the code is compromised.
In this work, we treat refactoring not as a single
atomic action, but rather as a sequence of subactions.
We divide the responsibility for these subactions between
the original developer of the code, who just prepares
the code for refactoring, and a future developer,
who may need to carry out the actual refactoring action.
To manage this division of responsibility, we introduce a
set of annotations along with an annotation processor that
prevents software erosion from compromising the ability
to perform the refactoring action.