Now you can dramatically improve the design, performance, and manageability of object-oriented code without altering its interfaces or behavior. Re...
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Jan 22, 2012
Ivan
rated it: 
Refactoring is the process of rewriting software, without changing the way it functions, in order to improve its readability, testability or maintanability. A book has been written on the subject by Martin Fowler. Some of the chapters were written by other people.
“Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code” is focused on OO programming (lots of Java examples) and Agile practices. It is setup as a catalog of refactoring techniques. Each page dedicated to a refactoring is clearly More...
“Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code” is focused on OO programming (lots of Java examples) and Agile practices. It is setup as a catalog of refactoring techniques. Each page dedicated to a refactoring is clearly More...
Jan 28, 2011
Tim
rated it:
Pros: The opening chapters give a great introduction to refactoring. The middle chapters are worth their weight in gold as a reference to object-oriented refactorings. Explains why refactoring is a necessity for us.
Cons: The final 3 chapters by other authors weren't very useful to me, exluding Beck's chapter, but don't necessarily detract from the book because I suspect others will find them relevant.
Summary: One of those "must have" books for all "classi More...
Cons: The final 3 chapters by other authors weren't very useful to me, exluding Beck's chapter, but don't necessarily detract from the book because I suspect others will find them relevant.
Summary: One of those "must have" books for all "classi More...
Mar 09, 2009
Daniel
rated it:
The best programming book I've read in a long time.
There are a lot of design and analysis books but not a lot of programming books. I would gladly read anything from Fowler. It's so simple of a concept but it goes against a lot of 'common sense'. Essentially, don't over design. Don't spend too much time in design and analysis that you've been told to do based on the wrong assumptions of the waterfall model (which never worked).
Kent's book on Test-driven Developme More...
There are a lot of design and analysis books but not a lot of programming books. I would gladly read anything from Fowler. It's so simple of a concept but it goes against a lot of 'common sense'. Essentially, don't over design. Don't spend too much time in design and analysis that you've been told to do based on the wrong assumptions of the waterfall model (which never worked).
Kent's book on Test-driven Developme More...
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Aug 08, 2010
Zekses
rated it: 
This book presents some basic designs for refactoring your software towards better readability and thus easier modifications. I can not give it 5 stars for 2 reasons only
1) it is a bit old
2) most of the things discussed here are better conveyed in the "Code Complete. Second Edition" which I believe to be far superior to this book both in terms of being up to date and simplicity of the language (which makes latter more understandable)
But anyway - this is a really More...
1) it is a bit old
2) most of the things discussed here are better conveyed in the "Code Complete. Second Edition" which I believe to be far superior to this book both in terms of being up to date and simplicity of the language (which makes latter more understandable)
But anyway - this is a really More...
Aug 10, 2010
Dimitko
rated it:
The thing that made this book amazing in my eyes is the demystification factor.
As the author himself admits, software consultants often say they adhere to some vague notion of "software aesthetics", which frankly doesn't help at all when one wants to reach the next level of good programming.
However, in this book the author gives a detailed (but not bloated!) list of very concrete techniques to make Java projects easier to maintain and evolve.
One of t More...
As the author himself admits, software consultants often say they adhere to some vague notion of "software aesthetics", which frankly doesn't help at all when one wants to reach the next level of good programming.
However, in this book the author gives a detailed (but not bloated!) list of very concrete techniques to make Java projects easier to maintain and evolve.
One of t More...
Apr 23, 2010
David
rated it: 
While this book is more of a reference book than a book to read through a memorise (and I intend to use it as such in the future), this book is well worth having for software engineers looking to improve their practices. Even if you don't subscribe to Martin Fowler's 'lots of small methods and classes' style of programming (and I admit, it takes some getting used to), the techniques in this book are still useful and applicable to any software project.
The book consists mainly of a ca More...
The book consists mainly of a ca More...
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Nov 18, 2010
Irwan
rated it:
This book is the foundation of those sets of techniques, methodologies and practices which came later, but I've already known before finishing this book. Very inspiring for me professional-wise. There is also a historical element in reading it, that is to see the conception of an innovative idea in the academic work until it became adapted in the industry.
Reading the techniques like Extract Method, etc, I usually just scan quickly the steps prescribed, because now it takes only a few k More...
Reading the techniques like Extract Method, etc, I usually just scan quickly the steps prescribed, because now it takes only a few k More...
Mar 29, 2011
Ash
rated it:
There's some good stuff and some not so good stuff in here.
The discussion about the refactoring principles and process are excellent. It ties in well with the explicit mechanics of the refactoring, which is about being able to take small, behaviour-preserving steps.
Some of the examples are suspect though. The authors point out that the refactorings are not designed to demonstrate a business model, but some of the use of Mountain Bike classes just seem way off. Also, wh More...
The discussion about the refactoring principles and process are excellent. It ties in well with the explicit mechanics of the refactoring, which is about being able to take small, behaviour-preserving steps.
Some of the examples are suspect though. The authors point out that the refactorings are not designed to demonstrate a business model, but some of the use of Mountain Bike classes just seem way off. Also, wh More...
May 18, 2009
Sylvain
rated it:
C'est un livre très instructif montrant comment réagencer du code existant en vue de l'améliorer (lisibilité, maintenabilité, testabilité, préparation à l'ajout de fonctionnalités). C'est en quelque sorte un livre de recettes, mais de ce fait il est assez difficile/fastidieux à lire, surtout de bout en bout.
Une chose qui m'a un peu agacé à la lecture du bouquin : les exemples sont introduits après le mode d'emploi, ce qui fait que l'on a du mal à comprendre ce que veux dire l'auteur More...
Une chose qui m'a un peu agacé à la lecture du bouquin : les exemples sont introduits après le mode d'emploi, ce qui fait que l'on a du mal à comprendre ce que veux dire l'auteur More...
Jan 26, 2012
Algirdas
rated it:
This book was published more than a decade ago - it is quite a long time for a book on software development. Yet list of refactorings provided in the book is still very much useful today. On the other hand, concrete techniques (mechanics as they are called) of refactoring are somehow outdated because of advancement of automatic refactoring support in modern IDEs.
Anyway I thing reading this book will be useful for any developer practicing object oriented programming.
Anyway I thing reading this book will be useful for any developer practicing object oriented programming.
Sep 22, 2011
Juliusz
rated it:
Book lists refactoring recipes for:
+ composing methods
+ moving features
+ organizing data
+ simplifying conditional expressions
+ making method calls simpler
+ dealing with generalization
The recipes are very simple/basic, if you have experience in programming you will find most of them familiar. The value of the book is in systematizing the methods of refactoring, explaining the motivation behind them, giving examples of things to look out for in your code.
More...
+ composing methods
+ moving features
+ organizing data
+ simplifying conditional expressions
+ making method calls simpler
+ dealing with generalization
The recipes are very simple/basic, if you have experience in programming you will find most of them familiar. The value of the book is in systematizing the methods of refactoring, explaining the motivation behind them, giving examples of things to look out for in your code.
More...
Sep 09, 2011
Shaun
rated it:
This book represents an excellent catalog of refactoring techniques. Seasoned developers will recognize most of the concepts but it certainly helps to have them laid out in such a straight-forward fashion. If you are a new developer, I would consider this book instrumental in your professional development.
Mar 29, 2011
Jess
rated it:
One of the most useful programming books out there, many many little snippets of code examples on how to keep your code from becoming stale, and keeping it tidy. I keep wanting to re-write them all in Perl just because I could..
Dec 28, 2010
Bek
rated it:
Like any guide of this sort, you have to pick and choose when and how much you want to use of it. But it's an incredible collection of techniques for repairing bad or overgrown code bases. Embrace change!
Jan 08, 2012
Alex
rated it:
Learning how to refactor us great: the lessons embedded in this book will give you the confidence to write code that works today since you will have the skills to adjust the design later.
Jun 20, 2009
Adarsh
rated it:
This is a great book. It changed the way I think and write code. This not only helps in refactoring the existing code but also makes me think when I write new code.
Feb 21, 2010
Stefan
rated it:
You *must* read this book if you are computer programmer and if you are even slightly serious about it. Even if I had picked up most of the ideas from other places, I still learned a great deal from this book.
Feb 04, 2012
Stephen
rated it:
This book had a huge impact on me. The "Code Smells" chapter by Kent Beck was worth the price of admission alone.
Sep 11, 2008
Wayne
rated it:
I found it a great help writting well constructed OOP code. Quality design and construction of OOP code are a couple of those intangibles which are hard to discern merely by reading things like keep your code loosely coupled etc.
Besides the obvious benefits of great refactorings for poorly written code, I found it more valuable in that it has given me a much better sense of what well constructed clean code looks like by illustrating what not to do.
BTW, after a couple o More...
Besides the obvious benefits of great refactorings for poorly written code, I found it more valuable in that it has given me a much better sense of what well constructed clean code looks like by illustrating what not to do.
BTW, after a couple o More...
Nov 13, 2010
Maksimkneller
rated it:
Excellent intro to Refactoring. Examples in Java but the concepts are universal. Classic.
Oct 23, 2007
Russell
rated it:
One of the best programming books I’ve read.
Smell tests, unit testing, refactoring, this book is fantastic.
However, this is not for the faint of heart, or those stuck in their time-tested ways.
He recommends getting into the code and start changing, just to understand it. Automated testing plays a very import role to make sure things don’t break as you change things around. Local variables can be evil.
Heresies, all of them. All of them there to make More...
Smell tests, unit testing, refactoring, this book is fantastic.
However, this is not for the faint of heart, or those stuck in their time-tested ways.
He recommends getting into the code and start changing, just to understand it. Automated testing plays a very import role to make sure things don’t break as you change things around. Local variables can be evil.
Heresies, all of them. All of them there to make More...
May 29, 2008
Christian
rated it:
One of the better technical books I have ever read. The book walks through the material as though you are learning it for the first time. Excellent examples (although it would be nice to see some from multiple languages and include NUnit, but some have been added to the book's web site). I think this not only helps you understand refactoring, but helps you think about your code as it is being written. Following the examples and understanding the purpose will make anyone a better programmer; Extr
More...
Jan 08, 2012
Ben
rated it:
Another book I have to place on my fundamentals list. I'm actually excited to look back at some of my old programs and start refactoring them. I have to say I'm glad to have tools like Refactor (DevExpress) at my disposal rather than having to do some of these refactorings by hand.
