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Glite Dictionary
⬡ Six-sided shape 💻 Software design
hexagonal

hexagonal

7.4
Relating to a design that keeps core logic separate from outside systems
  • adjective
  • /hɛkˈsæɡənl/
  • Specialized
translation icon : hexagonal
  • In software engineering, the hexagonal architecture allows developers to isolate the core logic of the application from external systems.

Examples

  • The team adopted a hexagonal design pattern to improve the maintainability of their application.

  • By using a hexagonal approach, the application can easily integrate with various external services.

  • Holland (1973) suggested that within a person or environment, some pairs of types are more closely related than others and that the relationship within (which yields a measure of consistency) and between (which yields a measure of congruence) personality types or environments can be ordered according to a hexagonal model in which distances within and between the personality profiles and job codes are inversely proportional to the theoretical relationship between them.

    Academic text (1992)

Synonyms

hexangular
vshexagonal
8.4

A flat shape with six straight sides and six corners

is a software design pattern that isolates core logic from external systems

Surface Forms

hexagonal positive
hexagonaler comparative
hexagonalest superlative

Morphology

hexagonal = hexagon (opaque) = hexagon + al

Although the term is built from 'hexagon' plus '-al', the software-engineering sense is a specialized label whose meaning is not recoverable from the parts alone.

Etymology

Hexagonal in software comes from the same Greek parts hex- 'six' and -gonal 'angle', because engineers often draw the program core as a six-sided shape with different sides for outside systems. That's why hexagonal architecture is a 'six-sided' way to show the core kept separate from external parts.