Book Review: Tidy First?

Review

Title: Tidy First?: A Personal Exercise in Empirical Software Design

Author(s): Kent Beck

This is a short book. Very short, if you exclude the fluff and theory. It circles around 15 tidyings (small refactoring techniques), plus some general topics, like coupling vs decoupling, how to do and sequence structural and behavioural changes, or maintaining cohesion. And it ends with a debate about when to tidy (spoiler alert: it depends, although the author does provide a good guidance/workflow).

The book also includes a cross-reference of which tidyings tend to lead to other tidyings. It follows with some theory, a formula to calculate the cost of software vs the cost of making changes... and some other filler content. And that's mostly all. Quite a few chapters span only two or three pages, although it at least avoids repetitive chapter summaries.

As for the techniques, some are really obvious, like removing dead code or redundant comments, but overall, they represent good advice, and it is good to learn or refresh them. I just wish there were more.

In the spirit of the book's brevity, I'd summarize it as good, but noticeably light on content.