[dllthomas]

Removing features that aren't used should often be done, but I'm hesitant to call it "refactoring". Most definitions say that a refactor doesn't change external behavior. Removing features has additional ramifications - good and bad - and probably deserves to be called out more explicitly.

[coldtea]

Refactoring in its pure form yes, but people use refactoring to mean any large scale restructuring of a program not just following refactoring patterns that produce the same result as before.

In practice large scale refactoring and change in behavior (dropping some features, fixing some stuff) are pretty much tied together.

[dllthomas]

I don't object to using "refactoring and ..." for such. I've weak objection, in terms of clarity and what we should be clear about, to using "refactoring" alone for it. I agree that it's not terribly uncommon.