Software Architecture as design

1. Software Architecture as design John D. McGregor

2. Beautiful software has: • Cooperation • Appropriate form • System minimality • Component singularity • Functional locality • Readability • Simplicity • http://www.chc-3.com/pub/beautifulsoftware.htm

3. Or… • Integrity • beautiful software solves one problem, and does it better than any other • Usability • It guides you through the tasks at hand in a clear way, minimizing risks for misunderstanding or misuse of its features. • Innovation • beautiful software is not afraid to solve the problems at hand in new and amazing ways

4. Practical advice • Maintain, trust, and foster your product vision. • Stick your chin out and don’t be afraid to innovate. • Love your users and invest in their interaction with your software. • Maintain your integrity – fight for it and don’t stray away from it.

5. Software Craftsmanship The goals of software craftsmanship are: Maintainability. Extensibility. Substitution. Don't Repeat Yourself (DRY), and avoid Not Invented Here (NIH) syndrome. You Ain'tGonna Need It (YAGNI) principle. Favor composition over inheritance. Create contracts for your objects. Have objects (and methods!) do one thing, and one thing well.

6. http://www.joachimschummer.net/papers/2009_AestheticValues_HandbookPhilTech.pdfhttp://www.joachimschummer.net/papers/2009_AestheticValues_HandbookPhilTech.pdf • http://web.eecs.utk.edu/~mclennan/papers/ASE-TR.pdf

7. Software sustainability • Economic • Aesthetic • Timely • Natural

8. Work with “nature” not against it • Rely on “local” conditions and traditions • Software architecture tends to be trendy and international • The concept of “local” means domain-specific • There is no one architecture for everything but international organizations train architect consultants and tend to homogenize product architectures

9. Moshe Safdie • http://www.ted.com/talks/moshe_safdie_on_building_uniqueness

10. Efficiency • Economy • Elegance • Form follows function • But there are many designs that will provide a specific function so it is better to think… • Function follows form • Designs that look good usually are

11. Plato • Plato said “The qualities of measure and proportion constitute beauty and excellence. • Aesthetic excellence is grounded in order, harmony, symmetry, and proportion in the parts.

12. Plotinus • Beauty is not in the relationships of the parts but in the unity of the one. • Usually are conscious of the perfection of the whole before there is an appreciation of the individual details

13. Experiment • Criticism • Theory • Practice

14. Take a look • http://mwop.net/blog/2012-11-17-zendcon-beautiful-software.html • http://www.mauronewmedia.com/blog/why-candy-crush-saga-is-so-successful-and-popular-but-will-never-be-an-angry-birds-a-cognitive-tear-down-of-the-user-experience/

15. Here’s what you are going to do.. • Step back and look at your architecture • What elements of beauty does it possess? • Identify what you think are the most beautiful parts of your design. • Compare this to the earlier assignment where you decided which part of the architecture you thought was the best and which was the worst. • Write up your analysis and submit by 4/22 at 6am