Hexagonal Architecture Promises Simplicity, Developers Now Arguing Over What ‘Port’ Even Means

Hexagonal architecture, also known as the Ports and Adapters pattern, is a software design approach that emphasizes separation of concerns, making systems modular, testable, and adaptable to change. This architectural style, inspired by Uncle Bob's Clean Architecture, was formalized by Alistair Cockburn, who introduced the concept of ports and adapters to define purposeful conversations between components. In a hexagonal architecture, the core business logic remains independent of external systems, such as databases or user interfaces. Experts like Juan Manuel Garrido de Paz and Vaughn Vernon have discussed the differences between hexagonal and clean architecture, with the former being less prescriptive. The implementation of hexagonal architecture can be seen in a social media publisher application, where the code is structured into application and adapters, with inbound and outbound adapters providing input and output to the application. This approach allows for testability and maintainability, with developers like Davi Vieira and Gordon Skinner exploring its implementation in various programming languages, including Java.