February 2013
Intermediate to advanced
352 pages
7h 45m
English
This book isn’t directly about refactoring, but I feel that it’s worth a little bit of discussion to at least provide you with a frame of reference for the coming chapters. So, I’ve added this “mini chapter” to help set some context.
The word refactor is bandied about a lot, and much of the time it is misused. Many of the people who use it actually mean “change” even though the definition is much narrower than that. Refactoring is changing design without changing behavior. It is a disciplined way of introducing change that minimizes the risks of injuring existing behavior. In the data world, that can be extended to include knowledge as well as behavior.
Of course, all changes should have a purpose. If you’re changing design ...