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by Laurent Bossavit.
Original Post: Architecture and pattern density
Feed Title: Incipient(thoughts)
Feed URL: http://bossavit.com/thoughts/index.rdf
Feed Description: You're in a maze of twisty little decisions, all alike. You're in a maze of twisty little decisions, all different.
I've just finished Steward Brand's How Buildings Learn, which I recommend to anyone who intends to keep using the term "architect" in the context of software. There's a lot in there about emergent design, "deploying" early and often, negotiating scope, ongoing maintenance, economics, planning for the future without overspecifying...
There are many, many paragraphs which tempted me to quote at length. My favorite short quote from the whole book is this one:
It's a shame to do anything for just one reason
This is related to "pattern density", a notion which Christopher Alexander apparently discusses with respect to buildings-architecture but which I think is misunderstood in the domain of software design.