powerful abstraction

30 Oct 2021 02:15 - 16 Dec 2022 12:22
Open in Logseq
    • The Holy Grail of computing, at least the kind I care about, is the powerful abstraction. All programming or system design is about designing abstractions, more or less. People who work with computers develop a fine sense of what makes a good abstraction, and their best professional moments are when they come up with the right one for a particular design.
    • The highest achievement in this respect is language design. A language is an abstraction that is purely general – that is, very abstract, but in a way that makes it applicable to many different situations and uses.
    • OOP languages, once thought to be the answer to everything and now in some disrepute (which illustrates that the aesthetics of abstraction has its fads and seasons just like artists and (real) architects).
    • Refs
      • Tellman book?
      • Software Patterns
      • Papert
      • who else?