Slide Statements

Removes smells

Symptom

A function whose related statements are interleaved with unrelated work; the agent reasoning about any sub-step must track state across non-adjacent lines.

Goal

Related statements sit next to each other; the agent reads the function as a sequence of cohesive blocks ready for extraction.

Before the refactoring

const basePrice = qty * itemPrice;
logPriceCalc(basePrice);
const tax = basePrice * 0.1;
logTaxCalc(tax);

After the refactoring

const basePrice = qty * itemPrice;
const tax = basePrice * 0.1;
logPriceCalc(basePrice);
logTaxCalc(tax);

Example source: Illustrative example written for this site, not a quotation from any source.

Pressure

The agent holds partial sub-step state across non-adjacent lines; reasoning about any single concern requires tracking the others through the interleave.

Tradeoff

Sliding can silently change behavior if statements aren't truly independent (hidden side effects, timing dependencies, observer effects); the agent verifying the slide must confirm independence at every gap.

Relief

Statements that depend on one another sit next to each other; the agent reads each cluster as a unit without tracking state across non-adjacent lines to follow data flow.

Trap

Aggressive sliding without verifying side-effect ordering — observer logs, time reads, async dispatch — silently changes behavior the agent's local tests may not catch.