Architectural Style

Software Architecture in Practice

[ISBN: 0321154959]

Some of the basic Architectural Styles (Architectural Patterns)

Data Centered -- a system in which the access and update of a widely accessed data store is an apt description
Data Flow -- characterized by viewing the system as a series of transformations on successive pieces of input data
Virtual Machine -- software styles that simulate functionality that is not native to the hardware and/or software on which it is implemented
Call and Return -- no description in book, but is described as having been the dominant architectural style in large software systems for the last 30 years
Independent Components -- consists of a number of independent processes or objects that communicate through messages

The authors go on to discuss Heterogeneous Styles. Giving as an example a client-server system like those that communicate using a CORBA-like infrastructure, the authors describe such a system as a hybrid of objects (a substyle of call and return), layers (also a substyle of call and return), and communicating processes. -- HankRoark