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Average Customer Rating:

Good resource for teaching

Customer Rating:

What is better? Replacing delegations with inheritance or replacing inheritance with delegation? The answer is the ultimate answer to most software engineering decisions: DEPENDS, there is always a trade-off that has to be analyzed according to the context! This book addresses those trade-offs very well. Moreover, I like the examples in the book, good to use in class when teaching. They generate interesting discussions.

Must have in any developers collection

Customer Rating:

I was referred to this book from a colleague after a quick discussion on "Replace temp with Query" in our projects code base. I thought I knew it all as a software developer, but reading this book, I soon came to realize that as a software developer I was leaving a legacy of code that was not at the standard it should be. This book opened my eyes to some really simple concepts, for example, when trying to understand code someone else has written (or yourself in some cases) take the time to re-factor the code (i.e. Extract Method) so that the code is understandable, since most of the work is spent in trying to understand the code in the first place. This concept of modifying code as you understand it is superb. I must say I was skeptical at first but the benefits are really starting to show. This book is written with the knowledge of Martin Fowler, and as such is written with experience of what it is like to be a developer in a commercial environment, for example, trying to explain to management the trade-offs of re-factoring first instead of "tacking on" that new feature. Something that is difficult in any environment. This book will by no means solve your problems, but it will empower you with a new found love to make the IT project(s) you work on better (i.e. not thinking of the now but the future) practice some of the smaller concepts this book presents on a daily basis and the rewards are well worth it, break those bad habits today.

Refactoring

Customer Rating:

Refactoring is the process of changing a software system in such a way that it does not alter the external behavior of the code yet improves its internal structure. It is a disciplined way to clean up code that minimizes the chances of introducing bugs. In essence when you refractor you are improving the design of the code after it has been written. When I first got this hardcover in December 2000, there were no integrated development environments (IDE) that would have easily allowed applying refactorings like Extract Method or Inline Method. Now, in 2008, any IDE like Delphi allows to refactor in one click. So now this book is even more valuable than it was at a time of first publication.

An Easy Read - Lots of Great Info - Must for New Programmers	Customer Rating:
This book is just a real easy read, with lots of good information. You can pretty much flip to any page in the book, read, and learn something. You don't have to read chapter by chapter - it's just real easy to jump into. Lots of tips seem self-evident, but I doubt they would be to rookie programmers. It's definitely a book new programmers should get their hands on early.

A must read for any serious developer.	Customer Rating:
This book is required reading for anyone who is serious about software development. If you want to go from good to great then do yourself a favor and get this book.