or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
Express Checkout with PayPhrase
What's this? | Create PayPhrase
Sorry!
More Buying Choices
32 used & new from $26.94

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Refactoring Workbook
 
 
Tell the Publisher!
I’d like to read this book on Kindle

Don’t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.
 
  

Refactoring Workbook (Paperback)

~ (Author) "This book is divided into three sections..." (more)
Key Phrases: expose duplication, refactoring cycle, speculative generality, Extract Method, Move Method, Extract Class (more...)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

List Price: $39.99
Price: $31.19 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details
You Save: $8.80 (22%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Want it delivered Tuesday, November 10? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
17 new from $27.12 15 used from $26.94

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code by Martin Fowler

Refactoring Workbook + Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code
  • This item: Refactoring Workbook by William C. Wake

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details

  • Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code by Martin Fowler

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Essentials of Software Engineering

Essentials of Software Engineering

by Frank F. Tsui
3.0 out of 5 stars (1)  $41.70
Balancing Agility and Discipline: A Guide for the Perplexed

Balancing Agility and Discipline: A Guide for the Perplexed

by Barry Boehm
4.2 out of 5 stars (15)  $35.09
Refactoring to Patterns

Refactoring to Patterns

by Joshua Kerievsky
4.1 out of 5 stars (44)  $36.66
The Deadline: A Novel About Project Management

The Deadline: A Novel About Project Management

by Tom DeMarco
4.4 out of 5 stars (55)  $13.60
Working Effectively with Legacy Code

Working Effectively with Legacy Code

by Michael Feathers
4.9 out of 5 stars (30)  $33.84
Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Refactoring has gained widespread acceptance in the software engineering community as a proven means of improving software. Martin Fowler's seminal book on this topic, Refactoring, 0201485672, has been used in the classroom to explain that existing code could be improved and enhanced without significantly altering the fundamental structure of an application. But many find that this concept has a steep learning curve that inhibits its use. In this new book, William Wake offers a more introductory look at this important topic. The author outlines a proven workbook approach to learning and applying refactoring to "everyday" projects. This approach relies on examples that force the student to apply the main concepts of refactoring. As a result, readers gain thorough knowledge of how refactoring can help improve their software.


From the Back Cover

As a programmer, you need to be able to recognize and improve problematic code, so the program remains in a working state throughout the software lifecycle. Refactoring-the art of improving the design of existing code safely-provides an efficient, reliable system for bringing order to the chaos, and one that keeps the surprises to a minimum! Refactoring can be difficult to learn, but Refactoring Workbook, by consultant William C. Wake, presents the material in a easy-learning format that makes learning enjoyable and effective.

For many, the obstacle to learning refactoring is in identifying the "smells"—the potential problem areas-found in code. Instead of having you read about the smells, Refactoring Workbook makes sure you understand them. You'll solve a carefully assembled series of problems, and you'll find yourself learning at a deeper level and arriving at a few insights of your own. Wake uses the workbook method—a learning-focused approach that forces you to apply the techniques presented in the book-in the rest of the book. This approach helps you learn and apply the most important refactoring techniques to your code and, as a side benefit, helps you to think more about creating great code even when you're not refactoring.

Refactoring Workbook provides user-friendly references such as:

  • A handy, quick-reference "smell finder"
  • A standard format for describing smells
  • Appendices showing key refactorings
  • A listing of Java™ tools that support refactoring

This book is intended for programmers with a knowledge of Java, though a C# or C++ programmer with a basic understanding of Java would also be able to follow and learn from the examples. It can be used as a companion to Martin Fowler's Refactoring (also from Addison-Wesley Professional), which provides step-by-step instructions for many refactorings.


Product Details

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional (September 6, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0321109295
  • ISBN-13: 978-0321109293
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #455,083 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

More About the Author

William C. Wake
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Visit Amazon's William C. Wake Page

Inside This Book (learn more)




What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?


Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

 

Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Good exercises in refactoring, May 20, 2004
By Charles Ashbacher "(cashbacher@yahoo.com)" (Marion, Iowa United States(cashbacher@yahoo.com)) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)      
Refactoring is the process of recognizing and correcting problems in code that is functional. Since the code is working correctly, refactoring is something that is generally done late in the development cycle or perhaps not until the code has entered the maintenance phase. However, refactoring has proven to be so valuable that most recent books on software engineering spend some time describing what it is.
Performing a refactoring starts with identifying a "code smell", a segment or feature of the code that just feels awkward or unusual. This is not as hard as it may appear, many of the most common "smells" have been cataloged and the solutions identified. For example, the first "smells" covered in this book are:

* Obscure or overly descriptive comments.
* Overly long methods.
* Overly large classes.
* Overly long parameter lists to methods.

and all examples are coded in Java. Programming veterans will recognize most of these problems as old and venerated programming difficulties. With the exception of large classes, they have been part of the list of bad programming habits for decades. However, the solutions require a bit of thought, it is conceptually simple to make comments, variable names and method names more descriptive, but of course there are reasonable bounds that reasonable people can disagree on. There are only rules of thumb available to guide us, and Wake sets down his thoughts on this matter.
The real difficult problems in this list, and where this book is the biggest help in this section, is in demonstrating how to make methods and classes shorter. To factor out just the right amount of code and still maintain the same level of understandability can be a difficult judgement call. Programmers learn best by seeing worked examples, so the sequence of presentation is:

* Symptoms.
* Causes.
* What to do?
* Payoff.
* Discussion.
* Contraindications.

Coding veterans will most likely find the "contraindications" section of the exercises the most helpful. It describes reasons why performing the refactoring may not be the best decision.
The second set of refactoring exercises are:

* Unnecessary complexity.
* Duplication.
* Conditional logic.

This set of refactorings will also be familiar to coding veterans. Removing dead code, eliminating duplicate code, deleting magic numbers and using more efficient Boolean operations have been on the list of good programming habits for decades. Therefore, the refactorings in this section are fairly routine, as they do not require an object-oriented example to demonstrate them.
The most valuable section of the book is the second one, where the coverage is smells between classes, which are as follows:

* Data.
* Inheritance.
* Responsibility.
* Accommodating change.
* Library classes.

Most modern programmers will be familiar with the first section and will have already done many of them as part of their general coding practices. However, the "smells" in the second list are those that always seem to creep undetected into large programs. Therefore, they are harder to identify and often even harder to remove. I found the segment on problems in library classes to be the most valuable one of the entire book. I often use library classes in Java and there have been times when I have looked at a library class and been puzzled by how it is constructed.
The book closes with four small programs that are to be refactored as exercises. Large and complex enough to be worthwhile exercises, they are an excellent conclusion to a helpful book. Many problems are included and solutions to almost all are found in an appendix.
While this book is a good way to practice refactoring, it is not a good way to learn it. The classic book by Martin Fowler is still the best introduction to refactoring.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars An ideal companion to Martin Fowler Refactoring book, December 11, 2003
By Foti Massimo (Vezia (Switzerland)) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
An ideal companion to Martin Fowler's Refactoring book. Wake delivers a more practical oriented book, with a generous amount of relevant examples and code listings. Compared to Fowler's seminal title this one, due to its "workbook" nature, is much more Java-centric, making it harder to translate certain concepts to different languages and environments. In my opinion a very interesting and informative book, somewhat affected by a confused typographical layout not very well suited to its content. Just remember to read Fowler's book first!
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Made me a better programmer, October 5, 2003
Most books about programming teach us about a specific technology or two. Right now I'm staring at some great books on my shelf that have taught me things like user interface programming in Java, templates in C++, how to work with XML files, and so on. Bill Wake's "Refactoring Workbook" goes well beyond books like these. Those books give me some fleeting insights into a technology du juor. Wake's book teaching me things that will stay with me throughout my career. I finished it having learned new skills that will make me a better programmer, regardless of what I'm working on-Java user interfaces, C++, or code to read XML files.

The book includes over 100 exercises, many of which are answered in an appendix. I worked through the book alone but this is the type of book I'd love to work through with a group.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Improving code is key to building a quality enterprise
Learning to make what you already have better WITHOUT negatively impacting the enterprise or rewriting what you already have is a key skill that this book teaches and preaches... Read more
Published on June 23, 2006 by Lloyd Jeffries

4.0 out of 5 stars Makes Refactoring Real
This book proved to be an excellent learning tool during a refactoring session at my eXtreme Programming Users Group meeting. Read more
Published on May 19, 2004 by Christopher Gardner

5.0 out of 5 stars Required reading to get effective at refactoring
The concrete identification of smells, working examples, and straighforward but useful exercises make this book a must-have to really understand how to refactor your code -- even... Read more
Published on December 21, 2003 by Lars Bergstrom

Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Discussion Replies Latest Post
Textbooks for Kindle DX? 61 16 hours ago
textbook scam 66 5 days ago
Amazon is a great place to buy textbooks! 35 17 days ago
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   




Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)


Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject

 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.