Refactoring-Improving the Design of Existing Code.pdf

"Refactoring" was conceived in Smalltalk circles, but it wasn't long before it found its way into
other programming language camps. Because refactoring is integral to framework development,
the term comes up quickly when "frameworkers" talk about their craft. It comes up when they
refine their class hierarchies and when they rave about how many lines of code they were able to
delete. Frameworkers know that a framework won't be right the first time around—it must evolve
as they gain experience. They also know that the code will be read and modified more frequently
than it will be written. The key to keeping code readable and modifiable is refactoring—for
frameworks, in particular, but also for software in general.