Chapter 1 - Introduction

Summary

Over the past few years, I have been giving presentations on distributed systems and CORBA. My focus has been on the design and architecture of such systems. In each presentation I refined my ideas and thoughts. It seemed the next logical step to produce a book on the same subject. If the audiences I have seen are indicative, there is a definite need to share information on the construction of distributed systems. Our field improves with the flow of information: the ability to learn and build upon each other's experience. This book is a contribution from my coauthors and me to the codification of the principles of distributed object architecture.

Software architecture, by its nature, is rather ephemeral and not easy to write about. There are various ad hoc approaches to architecture, and it has only been in recent years that we have seen increase in work to codify architectural principles. Part of this codification is the adoption of design patterns from the work done in real-world architecture by Christopher Alexander. There is a growing literature on design patterns, and the use of patterns goes some way to helping with the construction of complex distributed systems. We will now take a quick look at what architecture means for the world of software and lay the groundwork for the rest of the book.

What Architecture Is

If you were to look up the definition of architecture in a standard dictionary, you would find that architecture is the “art and science of designing and constructing buildings.”