Author: Jay Fields, Shane Harvie, Martin Fowler & Kent Beck
Publisher: Addison Wesley
Pages: 480
ISBN: 978-0321603500
Aimed at: Ruby developers
Rating: 4
Pros: Ruby-specific
Cons: Not as readable as the Fowler/Beck original
Reviewed by: Mike James

This is quite simply a port of a well known general book on refactoring, well refactoring in Java to be completely accurate. The original authors (Fowler and Beck) are joined by two Ruby specialists to do the conversion. If you have the original then you don't need to buy this copy unless you find the Java examples difficult and would be happier with a specific Ruby volume.

Like the original the book covers the standard ground of refactoring and agile coding including smells, building tests, and so on. A final chapter focuses on refactoring Ruby on Rails.There are, however, aspects of the book that aren't quite as good as the original volume - the original authors' anecdotes and comments are to be preferred and there is evidence that the "port" hasn't been performed perfectly. As a result is you really want to learn refactoring and don't mind the language used then  Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Codefactoring is a better choice.

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