| An academic architecture almost always has the following basic characteristics: 1) It offers both superior control and convenience. 2) It is simple to comprehend and cheaper to operate. 3) Systems are connected to each other with drawn lines. 4) The architecture "Decouples" systems to make them simpler, not more complex. 5) Data structures map cleanly to each other, with no loss. 6) Data structures are 1-dimensional collections of "fields". 7) The architecture is not used in production. No organizations depend on it economically. . On the other hand, a practical architecture can be distinguished by the following characteristics: 1) It is used in production. People rely on it daily. 2) It is expensive, and needs constant human attention to balance control and convenience. 3) It has no optimal state - only varying states of failure. 4) Its systems have myriad ways to connect. Some are incompatible with others. 5) Data structures are messy and arbitrary. Some are provably incorrect. 6) Unicode in particular is a problem. 7) It is not comprehensible by any single person. . With apologies to Admiral Rickover :) |