Chapter 12: Handling Change
As most libraries change over time, refactoring is an important tool during library development. Even in the best-written libraries, external requirement changes generally force changes in order for the library to continue to be useful. Some of these requirement changes can come from changes in Ruby itself.
In this chapter, you'll learn about many different aspects of refactoring. You'll learn how to answer important refactoring questions, such as why you should refactor, when you should refactor, and how best to go about refactoring.
We will cover the following topics in this chapter:
- Considering reasons to refactor
- Learning about the refactoring process
- Implementing the most common Ruby refactoring techniques
- Refactoring to add features
- Removing features properly
By the end of this chapter, you'll understand better not just how to refactor, but why refactoring may or may not be a good idea for your library...
