The degree of coupling refers to the strength of a connection between two routines. Coupling is a complement to cohesion. Cohesion describes how strongly the internal contents of a routine are related to each other. Coupling describes how strongly a routine is related to other routines. The goal is to create routines with internal integrity (stong cohesion) and small, direct, visible, and flexible relations to other routines (loose coupling).

Steve McConnell, Code Complete (1993).

An interesting discussion about Smart clients and Web applications is taking place between Ron Howard and Paul Ballard on their blogs. Ron stands for web apps and the great responsiveness that tecnologies like AJAX can add to them, Paul reply that Smart clients are the future of most of the web apps we use today. The two are also betting on the future of these technologies and planned to verify their predictions in a year from now. Really nice!

R: Is “Smart Client” a “Dumb Idea”?

P: No Rob, Dumb Terminals are a Dumb Idea

R: Show me the money

P: The Web App/Smart Client Discussion Continues

R: The Smart Client / Web Application bet

P: Gentleman, Prepare to Click-Once!