Development Paradigms

Introduction

This article is a draft in active development - I'd be interested in your feedback.

A good development system will permit many approaches to the design of an application or service. Some of these approaches will be flexible, some will be rigid; some stable (even in the face of change), and others brittle and prone to failure.

What makes the difference between systems that come together easily working so well, and systems that seem to fight back with their authors, never coming together without a fight? Why is it that the one approach can work so well in one tool, but be a proverbial pain in another?

There is for any system a preferred way of operation - a natural way of using the system that makes it easier to get results. Work with the flow of the tool, and everything comes together. Work against it, and it falls apart. This approach comes from the consistency (or not) behind the language and it's supporting systems. More than that, it stems from the vision (or lack of it) held by the architects of the language and those supporting systems.

We can call this preferred approach The One Way.