Re: Application design & architecture

Chris,
 
To me it can most simply be summed up as things will eat and be eaten.  All
things are built to that end.  
Ex:
At the programming layer, programs are created to provide a piece of
information in the process of creating that information it consumes data
from files or other programs, performs the calculations necessary for the
piece of information it is responsible for and delivers it.  So programs are
built as suppliers.
 
The example covers encapsulation; modular programming; and the basic
structure.  Now take that and expand it to what delivery is used.  Is the
delivery XML; HTML; a report; work file; or 5250 display.  Then what is the
retrieval method?  Similar question to delivery.  At this point we've added
the idea of loosely coupled objects.
 
Back down to the program level; the structure will make you ask how granular
should my code be?  Granularity concerns itself with how small of a piece of
information or data do I need to code down to that is relevant in my
application?
 
It's all about writing once and using anywhere to provide data or
information to any 'requestor'....and it's all about finding the least
effort to change and create.  
 
We went from monolith to subroutines to modules and service programs to now
the current ultimate.  It's all good...it's a huge menu and there are a lot
of byte munchers ;)
 
bill
 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Chris  <mailto:CPayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Payne 
To: Midrange Systems Technical  <mailto:midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Discussion 
Sent: Tuesday, May 09, 2006 10:52 AM
Subject: RE: Application design & architecture


I like to think that I am a reasonably intelligent man, but I have to 
admit that I still have no idea what SOA is. I know that "SOA is 
Architecture. Not technology. Not hardware. Not software." And I have 
also learned that "your FTP solution could be SOA." And that it seems to 
make people think of web services and for whatever reason XML? 

Let's say I have some sort of problem, and I say to myself "Gosh I wish 
I had some SOA" what sort of problem do I have? These "Best Practices" 
are the best practices for what exactly? It sounds sort of like what is 
being described is either the internet, or EDI. 

Thanks, 
Chris