Refactoring and readability

Quality literature isn't produced by just writing; it's in the rewriting that excellence is achieved. This is also true with code. Robert Gray shines a spotlight on the mind-set and mechanics of refactoring and explains why it's key to improving readability and code quality.

Quality literature isn’t produced by just writing; it’s in the rewriting that excellence is achieved. This is also true with code. Readability is crucial to code quality and is best achieved by switching your mind-set from writer to reader. That switch fits naturally into the act of refactoring. Bruce Gray shines a spotlight on swapping hats, moving fluidly from problem solving (writer role) to communicating (editor role) and back. Refactoring is to programmers as lifting is to UPS workers: so basic that it gets overlooked, yet so fundamental that doing it naively can hurt. Refactoring is worth practicing as a discrete skill, bound to an implied value judgement of better code, best served with a separate commit workflow, and unsafe without automated testing.