Synopsis
Martin Fowler's guide to reworking bad code into well-structured code Refactoring improves the design of existing code and enhances software maintainability, as well as making existing code easier to understand. Original Agile Manifesto signer and software development thought leader, Martin Fowler, provides a catalog of refactorings that explains why you should refactor; how to recognize code that needs refactoring; and how to actually do it successfully, no matter what language you use. Refactoring principles: understand the process and general principles of refactoring Code smells: recognize "bad smells" in code that signal opportunities to refactor Application improvement: quickly apply useful refactorings to make a program easier to comprehend and change Building tests: writing good tests increases a programmer's effectiveness Moving features: an important part of refactoring is moving elements between contexts Data structures: a collection of refactorings to organize data, an important role in programs Conditional Logic: use refactorings to make conditional sections easier to understand APIs: modules and their functions are the building blocks of our software, and APIs are the joints that we use to plug them together Inheritance: it is both very useful and easy to misuse, and it's often hard to see the misuse until it's in the rear-view mirror---refactorings can fix the misuse Examples are written in JavaScript, but you shouldn't find it difficult to adapt the refactorings to whatever language you are currently using as they look mostly the same in different languages. "Whenever you read [ Refactoring ], it's time to read it again. And if you haven't read it yet, please do before writing another line of code." -David Heinemeier Hansson, Creator of Ruby on Rails, Founder & CTO at Basecamp "Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand." -M. Fowler (1999), "Whenever you read Refactoring ], it's time to read it again. And if you haven't read it yet, please do before writing another line of code." -David Heinemeier Hansson, Creator of Ruby on Rails, Founder & CTO at Basecamp Fully Revised and Updated--Includes New Refactorings and Code Examples "Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand." -M. Fowler (1999) For more than twenty years, experienced programmers worldwide have relied on Martin Fowler's Refactoring to improve the design of existing code and to enhance software maintainability, as well as to make existing code easier to understand. This eagerly awaited new edition has been fully updated to reflect crucial changes in the programming landscape. Refactoring, Second Edition, features an updated catalog of refactorings and includes JavaScript code examples, as well as new functional examples that demonstrate refactoring without classes. Like the original, this edition explains what refactoring is; why you should refactor; how to recognize code that needs refactoring; and how to actually do it successfully, no matter what language you use. Understand the process and general principles of refactoring Quickly apply useful refactorings to make a program easier to comprehend and change Recognize "bad smells" in code that signal opportunities to refactor Explore the refactorings, each with explanations, motivation, mechanics, and simple examples Build solid tests for your refactorings Recognize tradeoffs and obstacles to refactoring Includes free access to the canonical web edition, with even more refactoring resources. (See inside the book for details about how to access the web edition.), Martin Fowler's guide to reworking bad code into well-structured code Refactoring improves the design of existing code and enhances software maintainability, as well as making existing code easier to understand. Original Agile Manifesto signer and software development thought leader, Martin Fowler, provides a catalog of refactorings that explains why you should refactor; how to recognize code that needs refactoring; and how to actually do it successfully, no matter what language you use. Refactoring principles: understand the process and general principles of refactoring Code smells: recognize "bad smells" in code that signal opportunities to refactor Application improvement: quickly apply useful refactorings to make a program easier to comprehend and change Building tests: writing good tests increases a programmer's effectiveness Moving features: an important part of refactoring is moving elements between contexts Data structures: a collection of refactorings to organize data, an important role in programs Conditional Logic: use refactorings to make conditional sections easier to understand APIs: modules and their functions are the building blocks of our software, and APIs are the joints that we use to plug them together Inheritance: it is both very useful and easy to misuse, and it's often hard to see the misuse until it's in the rear-view mirror---refactorings can fix the misuse Examples are written in JavaScript, but you shouldn't find it difficult to adapt the refactorings to whatever language you are currently using as they look mostly the same in different languages. "Whenever you read [Refactoring], it's time to read it again. And if you haven't read it yet, please do before writing another line of code." -David Heinemeier Hansson, Creator of Ruby on Rails, Founder & CTO at Basecamp "Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand." -M. Fowler (1999), Martin Fowler's Refactoring defined core ideas and techniques that hundreds of thousands of developers have used to improve their software. Now, Fowler has thoroughly updated his book to reflect modern programming techniques., Refactoring is about improving the design of existing code. It is the process of changing a software system in such a way that it does not alter the external behavior of the code, yet improves its internal structure. With refactoring you can even take a bad design and rework it into a good one. This book offers a thorough discussion of the principles of refactoring, including where to spot opportunities for refactoring, and how to set up the required tests. There is also a catalog of more than 40 proven refactorings with details as to when and why to use the refactoring, step by step instructions for implementing it, and an example illustrating how it works The book is written using Java as its principle language, but the ideas are applicable to any OO language.