A word on why I´m an advocat of more rules

If you´ve been following my thoughts on changing our view of the application architecture (of business apps), then you might have gotten the impression, I´m very firm in my views and want everything to be governed by clear rules not to be broken.

Well, this impression is not wrong.

Yes, I´m very much in favor of clear rules. And I think there are not enough of them yet in the software business. Patterns are a start. But we need more rules, clear rules. Rules telling us when to do what - and not to think about it for a long time.

Every art and trade has rules. But most of the time, they are rooted in the inevitable: in physics, chemistry, mathematics. Bot so in our software business.

There are no physics putting harsh constraints on how we architect our software. When architecting buildings you can´t cheat. Physics will claim its toll if you calculate the statics wrong.

But with software it´s much harder to know beforehand, what will happen to a certain architecture. And even more so, if there are barely any architectural rules.

That´s why I'm so firm in stating my believes. Also, I have come to hate the conjunctive and making my statements relative (so as not to hurt anybody or paint myself into a corner).

If we continously use the conjunctive and make fuzzy statements using "mostly", "sometimes", "it depends" etc. we loose the ability to clearly communicate.

So I prefer to make clear statements - even though I run danger of being misunderstood.

But don´t get me wrong: Even though I try to phrase clear rules and lay a narrow path, I´m always open for rational discussion. Always! And I don´t fear making mistakes. I allow myself to change my view any time, if I find a better one.

And one last statement in favor or more rules: Only where there are clear rules and mastery of them, creativity can flourish!