The corruption of MVC: How the original design pattern was misunderstood and misapplied

Summary

This article critiques how the original Smalltalk MVC (Model-View-Controller) design pattern has been misunderstood and misapplied over the years, particularly by major platforms like Apple. The author traces the evolution of MVC definitions, highlighting how the original intent—where the Controller handles user input and the View handles display—has been corrupted into a pattern where the View and Controller are conflated. The piece argues that modern interpretations (especially Apple's Cocoa MVC) have led to bloated, unmanageable controllers and a loss of the pattern's original clarity and separation of concerns.