When asked to describe the architecture of a software system, the first thing developers usually do is picking a graphical tool to begin with. Maybe Visio, Xfig, OmniGraffle, or some other fancy UML tool. Maybe even Knuth’s MetaPost. These tools are all chock full of drawing features, and they keep you all too busy playing with the looks of a system’s design.
Aren’t we primarily interested in describing and thereby explaining the design of a system? More strongly, isn’t the actual goal communicating a design? Continue reading ‘The Five Princes’