Fail Fast or Degrade Gracefully?
There are two approaches to handling internal application errors. In the fail fast approach you immediately terminate the operation (or even the application) once an error is detected. In the degrade...
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The Reuse Trap in Software Design
I stared at my code on the screen, but inspiration wouldn't come. I was trying to design a new feature which shared some commonalities with the existing code base. In particular, there were a couple...
View ArticleComplexity and Reliability
Unrestrained complexity is a critical limiting factor in producing working software. The more complex a system, the more it will cost to create and operate and the less reliable it will be. Yet the...
View ArticleError Handling and Reliability
I have been thinking a lot lately about how to create reliable systems. I previously examined the link between complexity and reliability. Recently, however, I have come to appreciate the impact of...
View ArticleDesigning for Deployability
In my previous article Architecting for Deployability, I wrote about the importance of deployability - how reliably and easily software can be deployed from development into the production environment....
View ArticleInspiring Great Design
I recently acquired a design tool – a set of IDEO method cards, where each card presents a design approach or a method of gaining inspiration. IDEO's design philosophy is to keep people at the center...
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The Source Code is the Design
I first came across the thought-provoking article What Is Software Design? by Jack Reeves as an appendix titled "The Source Code Is the Design" in the book Agile Software Development: Principles,...
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Exposing Mutable Objects as Public Properties
I recently had an interesting design discussion with a coworker in which we discussed the pros and cons of exposing mutable objects as public properties of a class. This article provides my thoughts on...
View ArticleExploring Mental Processes behind Developing Software
How do you go about designing and coding software? More specifically, what is your mental process for accomplishing this? Becoming more aware of the approach you use allows you to deliberately control...
View ArticleStreaming Data to Reduce Memory Usage
I recently performed a series of optimizations to reduce an application's memory usage. After completing several of these I noticed that there was a common theme to many of my optimizations that I...
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