Head First Software Architecture

Chapter 5. Architectural Styles: Categorization and Philosophies

There are lots of different architectural styles out there. Each one exists for a reason and has its own philosophy about how and when it should be used. Understanding a style’s philosophy will help you judge whether it’s the right one for your domain. This chapter gives you a framework for the different kinds of architectural styles (which we’ll be diving into for the remainder of this book), to help you make sense of these and all the other architectural styles you’ll encounter as a software architect.

Let’s fill in that final piece of the puzzle, shall we?

There are lots of architectural styles

You’ve learned a lot about software architecture so far, but there’s one thing we still haven’t talked about: architectural styles. That’s what we’ll do in this chapter—in fact, the rest of this book is dedicated to architectural styles!

Before we get started: look around your neighborhood, then watch a show or movie set in a different part of the world. How many styles of homes do you see? There are literally hundreds—all influenced by the locale, weather, and the owners’ personal preferences. New styles are created every day.

That’s true for architectural styles in software, too. There are so many out there that ...