Comments on: A Unified Theory of Software Design, Architecture and Everything

By: softestpawn

softestpawn — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 19:59:49 +0000

Good post. I think johannes is talking about the trade off in runtime flexibility vs compile time explicit trust. As you say I think the runtime flexibility is often overrated.

By: johanneslink

johanneslink — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 09:08:26 +0000

@marko Maybe you can give an example for:

Many “dependcy hiding techniques” I have seen, also lower the probability that the Party A has to adapt [...] So I actually often prefer a few strong explicit dependencies over a lot of weaker implicit dependencies.

I have difficulties to discuss that in an abstract way only.

By: marko

marko — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:10:47 +0000

You are saying that “explicit dependency is obviously preferable over implicit” and so techniques that hide dependencies may be problematic. I agree with you on this one.

But it has a problem: Many “dependcy hiding techniques” I have seen, also lower the probability that the Party A has to adapt – albeit only to a minor degree. So numerical the hiding may seem like a good idea. Especially because these hidings show up in metrics so unproportionally favourable they are so popular.

So I actually often prefer a few strong explicit dependencies over a lot of weaker implicit dependencies. But while you mention explicit vs. implicit it is not considered in your definition of Good Design.

But besides that: A very good article. Thought provoking.