general

It's a rare book that causes the reader to say: "This changes *everything*." The Design Patterns book is one such, Refactoring is another.

The introductory chapters establish a clear theoretical and practical basis for the catalog of refactorings that make up the larger part of the text. Many of the examples are trivial, but then, many of the refactorings occur in simple situations. The more complex refactorings are usually accompanied by detailed example code. The mechanics section in each refactoring is an outstanding tool, and I expect to use it quite frequently.

I have followed the 'extreme programming' (XP) movement for some time, and I'm an ardent fan, as is, so I gather, Fowler himself. But don't be fooled by this: the book is not just for the XP crowd. All programmers who use Java (or have used more than one other oo language), will find this book a huge resource. I have a library that I recommend to journey-folk who aspire to mastery. Refactoring is certainly the newest addition. I think this book will be an instant classic.

I cannot say enough. Why not buy it now?

This is a book that will change the way you view code - as you are writing it and when you are maintaining it.

While the examples are written in Java (and a couple of the refactorings seem to be Java-isms) this is a book that should change the way you look at your code - no matter what language you use.

If you look at any code at all - if you are author, maintain or review code in any language - you should get this book, read it, and leave it on your desk.

Like many fundamentally good ideas, refactoring seems so simple that one wonders why we didn't think of it before. Fact is, refactoring has been happening for years (decades) but Fowler is one of the first to make this process accessible.

If you are a very experienced developer, this book will help you put some of your own practice into words, to explain it to other developers on your team. You will probably learn a few new wrinkles as well.

If you are a less experienced developer, this book can help you to become better at your craft. You'll find out some of the "tricks of the trade" used by the best developers (those who produce the most reliable, most maintainable code).

Fowler's refactoring has become a classic in the field of popular software engineering books. It's a good book that clearly explains the basic ideas of refactoring and develops a standard vocabulary for refactoring; the power of this vocabulary is demonstrated by the development tools like IntelliJ Idea and Eclipse that now incorporate its nomenclature directly to allow rapid automated refactoring. Refactoring together with Test-Driven development, both concepts developed largely by Kent Beck as part of his Extreme Programming methodology, are in my opinion the most powerful and innovative ideas in the last 10 years or so in software development. It is a fairly quick read for an experienced developer, and often admittedly presents concepts that any experienced develop would have discovered on his/her own. Nevertheless, all of the refacorings together in one book serve as an excellent reference and reminder. I think this book certainly belongs on the bookshelf of any developer wishing to improve his or her craft.