Title: Refactor afterwards, but design and review first
Review: Refactoring, says Fowler in his preface, is improving the structure of the code without changing the behavior at all. His book certainly offers an organized way to do that, with examples and then an entire second half of the book which is a reference of refactoring patterns. I can recommend reading the first half of the book (methods) and then keeping it around as a reference when needed.But as a constant daily method, I think it claims too much. "Improving the design of the code after it has been written," is still difficult, even if you have a book of refactoring patterns. And Fowler rightly makes having a strong unit testing suite a requirement.So I can say: read the book so that if you find yourself doing refactoring, you won't have to reinvent the wheel. But don't get your hopes up that refactoring is a substitute for good design and clear coding, as measured and improved through review by trusted co-workers.
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