Although readers should have experience of software development, no specific prerequisites are required to begin reading this book. All of the information that you need is contained in the various chapters. The book does not require knowledge of any particular programming language, framework, or tool. The code snippets in the book that illustrate various concepts are written in C#, but they are simple enough that prior C# experience is not necessary.

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/SoftwareArchitectsHandbook_ColorImages.pdf.

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "Now we can use that constant in our GetFilePath method."

A block of code is set as follows:

public string GetFilePath()
{
    string result = _cache.Get(FilePathCacheKey);

    if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(result))
    {
        _cache.Put(FilePathCacheKey, DetermineFilePath());
        result = _cache.Get(FilePathCacheKey);
    }

    return result;
}

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

public string GetFilePath()
{
    string result = _cache.Get(FilePathCacheKey);

    if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(result))
    {
        _cache.Put(FilePathCacheKey, DetermineFilePath());
        result = _cache.Get(FilePathCacheKey);
    }

    return result;
}

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "In a direct dependency graph, at compile-time, Class A references Class B, which references Class C"