MVC Pattern Versus Front Controller Pattern

Front Controller
"The Front Controller consolidates all request handling by channeling requests through a single handler object. This object can carry out common behavior, which can be modified at runtime with decorators. The handler then dispatches to command objects for behavior particular to a request."

1. Fowler (with diagram)
2. J2EE Pattern Catalog (longer description)
3. MSDN Reference
   

Model-View-Controller
"Model-View-Controller (MVC) is a software architecture that separates an application's data model, user interface, and control logic into three distinct components so that modifications to the view component can be made with minimal impact to the data model component."

1. Fowler
2. Wikipedia
3. MSDN Reference

 

ps: thanks to Cairo's awesome info, the original thread is from Channel9's Techoff.