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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:
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.
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?
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An architectural Style is a specialization of element and relation types, together with a set of constraints on how they can be used. On the other hand, an architectural Pattern expresses a fundamental structural organization schema for software systems.
The word style means: “a manner of doing something” while a pattern means: “a repeated decorative design”.
An architectural pattern is a general, reusable solution to a commonly occurring problem in software architecture within a given context. Architectural patterns are similar to software design pattern but have a broader scope.
Different Software Architecture Patterns :Client-Server Pattern. Event-Driven Pattern. Microkernel Pattern.
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.
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Frankly, I have always considered both these terms to be synonymous! And layman (relatively speaking) literature definitely treats them as such. Refer MSDN or Wikipedia
However, your question intrigued me a bit so I did a bit more digging and frankly...I couldn't find much except for a reference to A Practical Guide to Enterprise Architecture (The Coad Series), from which i quote:
An architectural style (Base et al. 1997) and an architectural pattern (Buschmann et al. 1996) are essentially synonymous.
Based on some more googling, this is what I think might be one possible way to differentiate the two:
How an architectural pattern will differ from a Design pattern i.e. Adapter, observer is basically by the level of Granularity at which they are applied (I know this isn't part of the question but it's related, I think...)
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Architectural Style is abstract i.e. conceptual neither technology nor library.
| Category | Architecture styles |
|---|---|
| Communication | SOA, ROA, Message Bus |
| Deployment | Client/Server |
| Domain | Domain Driven Design,Monolithic, Mocroservice |
| Structure | Component-Based, Object-Oriented, Layered, Plug-ins |
| Other | Peer-to-peer, REST, Cloud computing, Internet of Things, Blockchain... |
An Architectural Pattern is concrete i.e. implementation of an Architectural Style.
A Design pattern is a general reusable solution to a commonly occurring problem in software design at architectural level.
Analogy: Temples architecture style for different religions:
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In very simple words:
An architectural style
Is a concept, theory (and how it's implemented it is up to you). It can also apply to outside of the software world.
In example: REST (Representational State Transfer) is an architectural style built on certain principles using the current “Web” fundamentals.
An architectural patterns
Describes a solution at the software system (or module) level. In other words how it interacts each other e.g. view with model, and model with controller.
A design patterns
Is a solution at the core level, it talks about classes, functions and how actually the logic flows.
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