2. Although continual refactoring is a cornerstone of XP, XProponents admit that database refactoring is a problem, likening database definition to pouring a concrete foundation - once set, then it's well nigh impossible to change....
...I've seen massive and sweeping model refactoring take place in a matter of hours on JADE projects, often with no impact on GUI developers.
Im working on a big Java/SQL Server project now and I really miss the refactoring features in Jade, e.g. the ability to easily rename classes, methods, and attributes, and the ability to find all the references to something etc. Also, I find the structure of conventional apps where you seperate data, stored procedures, business objects, and UI code makes it much more difficult to re-architect if you find youve made an early mistake i.e. weve placed to much logic in the stored procedures.
Changing Class hierachies can be very difficult in Jade however, especially if there is persistent data. Often its much easier extracting all the code to a schema file and making the alterations there. It might be nice if Jade supported a feature like "Insert Class into hierachy and "Delete Class from hierachy".