Review

Rating: 7

On the surface the contents of this book are incredibly basic and verging upon the obvious. Several steps showing how to “move” a given method from one class to another, that’s so basic any programmer should be capable of doing it, right?

Yes, and no. The steps given in this book are for small and simple changes applied methodically. The idea been that by going through the motions of refactoring and making several small changes step by step to acheive your original goal you’ll make fewer mistakes and any mistake will be easier to spot and correct.

The reason I’ve given this book a 7 rather than a probably more deserving 8 or 9 is that I’ve yet to try refactoring in practice. It sounds good in theory and reading through the examples given for many of the refactorings in the book, I can certainly see the potential benefit. However, until I’ve had time to put refactoring into practice I feel unable to give a higher score.

Once refactoring is automated by the various IDE’s in use though, I imagine many more people will pay closer attention to it and the benefits it may yeild.

The book is well written which makes it an easier read than the subject matter would have suggested.