[eknkc]

Actually, Go makes this somewhat easy too. Check this: http://blog.golang.org/2013/01/go-fmt-your-code.html It's possible to do context aware source code substitutions. Works great. (Not that it's something new or groundbreaking though, just relevant to your expectation)

[pjmlp]

Comparing gofmt with what refactoring tools allow is too far fetched.

[redbad]

Are you aware of gofmt's rewrite rules?

http://golang.org/cmd/gofmt/#hdr-Examples

Pretty powerful stuff.

[pjmlp]

I am. Refactoring is much more than that:

- create functions and methods from code snippets

- merge duplicate code

- Semantic renaming of method names/variables/functions without affecting the same name being used in a different context

- convert field direct access to wrapper functions/methods

- remove dead code

- add missing code to interface/module/class where it is being applied

- validation of code references in comments

- ...