[e2e] Internet "architecture"

[Dave Crocker]

On 4/14/2013 11:17 PM, Jon Crowcroft wrote:
> that's pretty much how i'd use it too (having spent 30 years meeting
> people who design styles of construction of living spaces, but dont
> often actually build buildings, i'm stuck with the le courbusier, gaudi,
> foster, rogers, gehry meaning:)
>
> On Sun, Apr 14, 2013 at 11:07 PM, John Day <jeanjour at comcast.net
> <mailto:jeanjour at comcast.net>> wrote:
>
>     I basically use the dictionary definition of "a style of
>     construction."  The important distinction being between an
>     architecture and buildings built to that architecture.


Though I'm now finding the wording painfully awkward, here's what I used 
to explain the word, for the Email Architecture RFC:

    An architecture specifies
    how the protocols implement the service by defining the logical
    components of a service and the relationships among them.  From that
    logical view, a service defines what is being done, an architecture
    defines where the pieces are (in relation to each other), and a
    protocol defines how particular capabilities are performed.


That is, I'm finding the concept useful for defining components, 
structure and relationships, and mostly I try to stay away from more 
abstract or conceptual views of architecture, lest discussion get lost 
in labels of unclear meaning.

d/
-- 
  Dave Crocker
  Brandenburg InternetWorking
  bbiw.net