4 ms·

On System Design (2006) [pdf]

71 points by kick 7y ago

InfinityByTen 7y ago
"Like patterns or open source, there is considerable theology in the characterizations of agile methods, and I don’t wish to get caught up in such theological debates" Finally I see a sane stance somewhere :) This article is pure Gold on a lot of fronts and seems to have also aged decently well.
- Digg_mov 7y ago
  Like 3 patterns is or not open
lngnmn1 7y ago
This is actually good one. Especially the thesis that if one cannot reduce it to a small set of simple concepts - one does not understand it well enough. And design should be learned, like it was in 70s, form molecular biology and biology of complex systems. Asynchronous communication, feed-back loops (know when to stop), immutable interfaces. Evolution has everything solved.
ycombonator 7y ago
Can anyone point to good resources on systems thinking and design in general not just software ?
- mesaframe 7y ago
  Systems design depends a lot on hardware and research rather than theory. So, you'll have to read papers and code to grokk things. A good starting point would be to read about Operating Systems. www.OSTEP.org
- jonnydubowsky 7y ago
  Christopher Alexander's work introduced an approach to design using patterns from nature. https://arl.human.cornell.edu/linked%20docs/Alexander_A_Pattern_Language.pdf https://arl.human.cornell.edu/linked%20docs/Alexander_A_Patt... "You can use this book to design a house for yourself with your family; you can use it to work with your neighbors to improve your town and neighborhood; you can use it to design an office, or a workshop, or a public building. And you can use it to guide you in the actual process of construction". - from the Semantic Scholar introduction
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
Digg_mov 7y ago
Ok
myg204 7y ago
"About the series - The Perspectives series is a collection of essays written by individuals from Sun Microsystems Laboratories. These essays express ideas and opinions held by the authors on subjects of general rather than technical interest." Would someone know where I could find other essays from this collection?
bodeadly 7y ago
This post has long since scrolled off the front page but for posterity here is the best part: "The fact is that good system design takes time; it is the sort of thing that requires hard solo thinking along with long discussions with other engineers. There are days when no real progress seems to be made, and other days when the only progress is to realize that what you thought was progress over the previous few days or weeks was in fact a wrong turn that won’t really work. Such a realization is progress. In fact, such a realization may be the most important kind of progress, as it can save huge problems later in the project. But to a manager it may not seem to be moving forward." I recently came to this exact realization. So when I saw this post I had to see if it was in there. And it is!

71 points by kick 7y ago

"Like patterns or open source, there is considerable theology in the characterizations of agile methods, and I don’t wish to get caught up in such theological debates" Finally I see a sane stance somewhere :) This article is pure Gold on a lot of fronts and seems to have also aged decently well.

Digg_mov 7y ago
Like 3 patterns is or not open

lngnmn1 7y ago

This is actually good one. Especially the thesis that if one cannot reduce it to a small set of simple concepts - one does not understand it well enough. And design should be learned, like it was in 70s, form molecular biology and biology of complex systems. Asynchronous communication, feed-back loops (know when to stop), immutable interfaces. Evolution has everything solved.

ycombonator 7y ago

Can anyone point to good resources on systems thinking and design in general not just software ?

mesaframe 7y ago
Systems design depends a lot on hardware and research rather than theory. So, you'll have to read papers and code to grokk things. A good starting point would be to read about Operating Systems. www.OSTEP.org
jonnydubowsky 7y ago
Christopher Alexander's work introduced an approach to design using patterns from nature. https://arl.human.cornell.edu/linked%20docs/Alexander_A_Pattern_Language.pdf https://arl.human.cornell.edu/linked%20docs/Alexander_A_Patt... "You can use this book to design a house for yourself with your family; you can use it to work with your neighbors to improve your town and neighborhood; you can use it to design an office, or a workshop, or a public building. And you can use it to guide you in the actual process of construction". - from the Semantic Scholar introduction

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

Digg_mov 7y ago

myg204 7y ago

"About the series - The Perspectives series is a collection of essays written by individuals from Sun Microsystems Laboratories. These essays express ideas and opinions held by the authors on subjects of general rather than technical interest." Would someone know where I could find other essays from this collection?

bodeadly 7y ago

This post has long since scrolled off the front page but for posterity here is the best part: "The fact is that good system design takes time; it is the sort of thing that requires hard solo thinking along with long discussions with other engineers. There are days when no real progress seems to be made, and other days when the only progress is to realize that what you thought was progress over the previous few days or weeks was in fact a wrong turn that won’t really work. Such a realization is progress. In fact, such a realization may be the most important kind of progress, as it can save huge problems later in the project. But to a manager it may not seem to be moving forward." I recently came to this exact realization. So when I saw this post I had to see if it was in there. And it is!