Field Guide to Boxology

I found this paper very interesting because it pretty much provides "a checklist of topics to consider, thereby setting expectations for elements to include in the design". This could be a good reference whenever we're given a very general problem to solve. Also, I feel the "vocabulary used to describe styles more precise and shareable among software architects" is probably the most important thing that comes out of this classification; similar to what Design Patterns provides us.

Considering that this paper was published in 1996, why isn't there a popular book that transcends these concepts for decades to come? Maybe Ralph Johnson can get the Gang of Four team back together and write one for Architecture Styles. Or maybe they already did ...

I'm familiar with the Unix Pipes & Filters and Pipeline data flow styles but did anyone else find it weird to see the word "Transducer" as a constituent component? As a hardware guy, it’s obviously a device that transforms one form of energy into another like a thermometer or a microphone. In the context of the paper, it’s a dataflow network style where, "components are elements that asynchronously transform input into output with minimal retained state". Never heard of this term used in the software world.

In Table 2, they make the distinction between write-time & compile time. Aren't these the same? Also, can anyone tell me what's the difference between invocation & run-time? They pretty much sound the same to me.

And finally, did anyone find it annoying that they made several incorrect references to Table 1 when they meant Table 2 and vice-versa? I was worried I had read something for half-an-hour and not understood a thing!