Re:Firefox is on a slippery slope
by thomastjeffery on Saturday December 16, 2017 @04:08PM
(#15942112)
The biggest difficulty is tying components together.
There are a few methods:
1. Libraries linked by binaries.
This is the usual method, but it generally demands modules share some things, which usually couples them too tightly to their implementation.
2. IPC (Inter-Process Communication)
There are a few ways to accomplish this. Some are OS specific (named pipes), others are fairly generic (sockets). This requires modules to share a language, and has some overhead, but at least they aren't coupled.
3. Microkernel
Essentially the best points of 1 and 2, but generally a design challenge itself.
The biggest advantage to modular design is that you don't need to create all the modules before you get something useful.
There are a few methods:
1. Libraries linked by binaries.
This is the usual method, but it generally demands modules share some things, which usually couples them too tightly to their implementation.
2. IPC (Inter-Process Communication)
There are a few ways to accomplish this. Some are OS specific (named pipes), others are fairly generic (sockets). This requires modules to share a language, and has some overhead, but at least they aren't coupled.
3. Microkernel
Essentially the best points of 1 and 2, but generally a design challenge itself.
The biggest advantage to modular design is that you don't need to create all the modules before you get something useful.