I wanted to echo this. Fowler should not be lumped in with the other guys for his Refactoring book alone. Not only is it a really good guide that helps progra

I wanted to echo this. Fowler should not be lumped in with the other guys for his Refactoring book alone. Not only is it a really good guide that helps programmers understand how to rigorously make incremental, non-breaking changes. It almost reads like a specification for a refactoring tool. Really good software engineers write more than code. They know how to clearly outline ideas than can be handed to other developers.