The Architecture of Open Source Applications

From the authors:

In these two books, the authors of four dozen open source applications explain how their software is structured, and why. What are each program’s major components? How do they interact? And what did their builders learn during their development? In answering these questions, the contributors to these books provide unique insights into how they think.

A fascinating read, especially when it comes to looking at applications that I myself use. The deeply-thought-out designs, like LLVM’s, are educational in and of themselves, but it’s also fun to see how programs that didn’t start out so well-architected have been forced to evolve over time to meet new demands. (MediaWiki, I’m looking at you.)