Category Archives: Agile & Architecture
There seems to be quite a lot of activity on the “Domain Specific Language” front at the moment. Martin Fowler published “Language Workbenches: The Killer-App for Domain Specific Languages?”, in which he concludes that the common programming pattern of setting up repeating data structures via either very similar lines of code, or an external configuration file, is actually a DSL. He also republished a paper by Dave Thomas entitled “Design to Accomodate Change” on the related topic of table-driven programming.
However, Martin’s essay goes beyond common programming and data techniques to look at the development of specialist tools which he calls “Language Workbenches”. I’m not completely convinced that we need these in the world of XML and XSD. If you have a defined schema for you XML-based DSL (and aren’t all the many *ML langauges just different DLSs?) then any schema-sensitive editor will provide you with good design and editing support. The leading IDEs (e.g. Visual Studio) all have such a tool built into their core capabilities. Surely we now have a sufficiently sophisticated set of XML-based tools and standards that we have an opportunity to exploit synergies rather than re-inventing the wheel?
See
http://www.martinfowler.com/articles/languageWorkbench.html
In an interesting echo of my last piece (Why Software Isn’t Like Building Construction), Scott Ambler has analysed bureaucratic processes as a response to management fear about what can go wrong in software development. His conclusion is that these processes Continue reading →
Many software development and management methods are founded on a basic assumption – that constructing software is rather like building a bridge or a house. Once we’ve “done the design”, actually generating the software ought to be a completely predictable, Continue reading →
I recently attended a day of the Butler Group “Application Development Strategies” Symposium. I’ve just posted a short report on some of the more interesting discussions and presentations. Almost all of the presentations shared a reminder that we still have Continue reading →
I’ve just read a wonderful paper by Guy L Steele, “Growing a Language“. He argues strongly that programming languages must be “small”, but able to grow. Such a language will have a relatively simple structure, syntactic rules, and a small Continue reading →
Integration, like other design activities, can benefit from sharing ideas and proven strategies in the form of patterns. An excellent starting point is Gregor Hohpe and Bobby Woolf’s Enterprise Integration Patterns website and book. In my recent work I’ve discovered Continue reading →
In Extensibility Points, Gregor Hohpe describes architecture as a guessing game, trying to understand future changes to a business, and designing a system to cater for those changes. He’s written a good article on types of extensibility and where they Continue reading →
In a recent article, Gregor Hohpe asks “Is SOA Like Drunk Driving?” In our attempts to address the shortcomings of component-based development have we “swung too far” and introduced new problems? One recent experience suggests to me that we may Continue reading →
I’ve recently been catching up on the Microsoft Architecture Journal. This is an occasional MS publication, which can be downloaded from the .NET Architecture Center. It’s got a lot of good articles, with a software architecture and process focus. Of Continue reading →
The business equivalents of expansion capabilities like the spare slots in a desktop PC Continue reading →
A consideration of how an architect should handle complex or chaotic behaviour, using the Cynefin framework Continue reading →
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