One of the design principles related to software engineering is the Separation of Concerns (SoC) principle. The idea behind the SoC principle is to split an application into distinct sections, where each section addresses a separate concern. Examples of such concerns are the layers used in a layered design (data access layer, business logic layer, presentation layer, and so forth). Using the SoC principle simplifies the development and maintenance of software applications [j.mp/wikisoc].

The Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern is nothing more than the SoC principle applied to OOP. The name of the pattern comes from the three main components used to split a software application: the model, the view, and the controller. MVC is considered an architectural pattern rather than a design pattern. The difference between an architectural and a design pattern is that the former has a broader scope than the latter. Nevertheless, MVC is too important to skip...