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I remember TypeScript creator(forgot his name) mentioned that it's extremely difficult to do refactoring right in JS.

Edit: https://youtu.be/lT07c3OREL8?t=713

Anders Hejlsberg is who you're thinking of.

> He was the original author of Turbo Pascal and the chief architect of Delphi... the lead architect of C# and core developer on TypeScript.

(from wikipedia)

I would find it interesting to know why refactoring tools are successful in Smalltalk but not JS.

They're not successful in Smalltalk: the absence of type makes automatic refactorings unpredictable because the compiler simply can't guarantee you that it's not breaking anything.

Today's automatic refactoring IDE's are light years ahead what the Smalltalk Refactoring browser ever did.

Saying they are not successful in Smalltalk doesn't jive with the history of refactoring browsers in Smalltalk. I doubt the widespread use of a tool in a language if it didn't work.

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