Re: OOP - a question about database access

Christopher Browne <cbbrowne_at_acm.org> might (or might not) have written this on (or about) 6 Nov 2003 03:49:53 GMT, :

>It is _convenient_ to pretend that you can fit of the aspects of the
>system into some notion of "rooms," so that you can keep building
>things on by throwing on an extra room here and there.

In construction work that kind of evolutionary architecture can be very expensive to maintain. Expanding foundations and infrastructure is hard, when concrete and jackhammers are the tools. But in software the cost of evolutionary architecture is much lower. If you are careful with the way you write the code you really can make sweeping changes to the architecture without exorbitant costs.

In any case the building analogy breaks down at nearly the first step. For example, are the blueprints of software the diagrams that precede code; or is the code the blueprints. There are good arguments on both sides.

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