Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code

Chapter 1Refactoring: A First Example

How do I begin to talk about refactoring? The traditional way is by introducing the history of the subject, broad principles, and the like. When somebody does that at a conference, I get slightly sleepy. My mind starts wandering, with a low-priority background process polling the speaker until they give an example.

The examples wake me up because I can see what is going on. With principles, it is too easy to make broad generalizations—and too hard to figure out how to apply things. An example helps make things clear.

So I’m going to start this book with an example of refactoring. I’ll talk about how refactoring works and will give you a sense of the refactoring process. I can then do the usual principles-style ...