Structure101 is for contolling architecture and structural complexity. Version 2 introduced slicing and tagging. Beta 2 adds dependency hiding and cross-perspective navigation. New in v2 beta 2: Context menus (right mouse click) have been added. This introduces the new capability … Read More
Author Archives: Chris Chedgey
Spring 2’s architecture – A single dependency cycle slipped in
The Spring guys have let a single dependency cycle into their architecture. A very small flaw, but it’s a perfect example of why you need to check your code-base at different levels to keep it truly tangle-free. I did a … Read More
Tracking complexity debt
Un-monitored, the complexity of a code-base increases with its size. Jboss and Struts are perfect examples. However monitoring complexity helps you keep complexity debt under control, or even down to zero. If you publish the last couple of years worth … Read More
Manage complexity like debt
Ben Hosking writes in Managing Complexity – The aim of Designing Code that: “The most important part of design is managing complexity“ I like the simplicity of that. What happens if you don’t manage complexity. Well, it starts to cost. … Read More
CAT-scan a code-base
Structure101 v2 goes beta today. With it you can walk through the code-base in slices from the class-level, to the package-level and up through the design levels, spotting tangles and seeing how far they have spread. This is a snag … Read More
Gartner 2006 Technology Hype Cycle
The Gartner “Emerging Technologies Hype Cycle” is something worth giving a good once-over every year. The premise is that most technologies that eventually get traction will first go through a “Peak of Inflated Expectations” with lots of publicity and a … Read More
Struts more twisted than Spring
The structure of Struts is characterized by a nasty dependency tangle that starts at the class-level and percolates up through the package and design-levels. Following my blog on Spring’s “almost perfect” structure, I thought I’d take a look at another … Read More
“Tangles” rather than “Cycles”
I’ve been asked recently why I talk about "tangles" rather than "cycles" in the context of cyclic dependencies. The reason is clear when you look at a graph that contains a "strongly connected component" (a tangle): This graph contains … Read More