How to Read the Defactoring Notebook

One of the advantages to defactoring a function is that it affords us the ability to insert critical commentary into the code constituting the function itself. An unfortunate side-effect is that this makes keeping track of one’s place in the code a little more difficult. We have restructured the code into an executable narrative (when read as a Jupyter Notebook) for both human and machine readers.

Jupyter Notebooks are divided into a series of cells, code cells and text cells. In our defactoring, the code cells contain Python code mostly written by Underwood and Sellers, but with a few modifications by us. Code cells can be executed when reading this document using the Jupyter Platform (as opposed to static document). We have broken up the code of Underwood and Sellers and inserted text cells, written by us, which discuss and explain what is happening in the code cells and underlying computational process. In most cases the expository text is below the code cell. In the critical examination of the code we will be using a fair bit of coding language jargon. Although a very deep grasp of these coding concepts will not be needed, a certain level of coding literacy (Vee 2013) will facilitate a speedier comprehension of our narrative.