Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code (Addison-Wesley Signature Series (Fowler))

There have been some comments about the thickness of paper of this book. I was already aware of the fact due to Fowler mentioning it on an announcement post he made about the second edition. The thinness of the pages was still surprising, and as a result I’ve ended up treating the book more ‘delicately’ than I would have otherwise, which in a way added to the ‘specialness’ of this book. The content of this book is second to none - it’s a goldmine of useful techniques to help keep code in the best shape possible. Fowler goes into excruciating detail with regard to the steps taken for each refactoring. I found the reinforcement of ‘smaller steps’ incredibly useful when applying the techniques on my own later - I moved incrementally with the confidence of knowing which exact step in the process may have triggered a test failure. On the subject of testing, the book hammers home it’s importance in being able to actually refactor, which I can only see as a good thing. While the language of choice for the second edition is JavaScript, Fowler explains that the book is not focused on the language itself, rather it uses it as a vehicle to communicate the refactoring to a wider audience (the JavaScript used in the book is fairly simple and easy to follow). The fact that much of the software world is writing or making use of JavaScript in some way possibly makes this book more consumable by more people, perhaps as a result it can be used to introduce new ways of thinking about software to those not previously exposed to the type of knowledge and approach exposed in this book. Returning to the topic of physical quality, the book is hardbacked, the pages are printed with some colour (rare for a programming book), in addition to having a ribbon in the spine. These attributes only add to the positive experience of reading this book.

Great book. Very informative and helpful.

This book has been the very pillar upon which my master's thesis is built. Fowler has a very down-to-earth way of writing, making this book more like learning from a colleague than reading some tedious academic tome. Essential reading for any serious software developer! I did notice that the book's pages are surprisingly thin so you need to handle them with particular care.

It was a useful read to develop and reinforce a "language" particularly a visual language (the diagrams at the beginning of reach refactoring) to help conceptualise refactoring in general. It feels a "old school" in the sense that the newest trend is definitely moving away from old school object oriented programming, functional programming idioms are also getting more and more mainstream. As a result a lot of the refactorings are not so relevant anymore? But studying the examples is a good mental exercise anyway for now one might approach rewiring code step by step

Omg, forget about the quality of paper. The information is essential information for a developer on a journey of cleancode. If you destroy this nook because you've read it too much then well-done. I found this version much more accessible because it's thinner but much more amazingly has coloured printing, which I've found so much better than the original and defines the sections much easier. So much better than a lot of material out there.

A bit advanced, but great book for life.

I would advised even the most seasoned software engineer to give this a visit. The examples are great.