What's the difference between Architectural Patterns and Architectural Styles?

architecture architectural-patterns
devoured elysium picture devoured elysium · Oct 18, 2010 · Viewed 31.7k times · Source

In Software Architecture - Foundations, Theory and Practice, I can find definitions for both. The problem is that I don't get what each one of them means in plain English:

Architectural Pattern

An Architectural Pattern is a named collection of architectural design decisions that are applicable to a recurring design problem parameterized to account for different software development contexts in which that problem appears.

Architectural Style

An Architectural Style is a named collection of architectural design decisions that (1) are applicable in a given development context, (2) constrain architectural design decisions that are specific to a particular system within that context, and (3) elicit beneficial qualities in each resulting system.

What does each one mean and what are the differences between them?

Answer

devoured elysium picture devoured elysium · Jan 11, 2011

An Architectural Pattern is a way of solving a recurring architectural problem. MVC, for instance, solves the problem of separating the UI from the model. Sensor-Controller-Actuator, is a pattern that will help you with the problem of actuating in face of several input senses.

An Architectural Style, on the other hand, is just a name given to a recurrent architectural design. Contrary to a pattern, it doesn't exist to "solve" a problem.

Pipe&filter doesn't solve any specific problem, it's just a way of organizing your code. Client/server, Main program & subroutine and Abstract Data Types / OO, the same.

Also, a single architecture can contain several architectural styles, and each architectural style can make use of several architectural patterns.

Related questions

MVCS - Model View Controller Service

I've been using MVC for a long time and heard about the "Service" layer (for example in Java web project) and I've been wondering if that is a real architectural pattern given I can't find a lot of information about …

Read More
Difference Between Cohesion and Coupling

What is the difference between cohesion and coupling? How can coupling and cohesion lead to either good or poor software design? What are some examples that outline the difference between the two, and their impact on overall code quality?

Read More
What's the difference between REST & RESTful

What's the difference between a REST system and a system that is RESTful? From a few things I've read most so called REST services are actually RESTful services. So what is the difference between the two.

Read More