Abstract
This paper did not promise a systematic treatise on design theory and architecture, did not give it and could not do so. The aspects and principles indicated are not even a first design for a science or theory of design; they require further refinement, confrontation with significant bad examples of design, and propositions how to cure them, and a lot of other work, constructive and critical. Of course, the ideas presented are neither unique nor original. It is hoped, though, that the collection and common presentation may be able to bring designers of products and of specification methodologies to include — once in a while — considerations which they - busy and eager as they are to reach their immediate goals — would forget or ignore.
For abstract formalization and specification is true what I have said at several occasions: nothing is more practical than a good theory. But a good theory as well as a good design require more than correctness — they require a philosophy and a set of a priori principles, as I have tried to show.
After the architectural phase or, even better, contemporary with it, there should be the phase of re-humanization. We should indeed attach to each bit abstracted from the real world a bit of human flair and adaptation. I mean here not only the human feature of our professional and personal imperfection — but the creation of a human atmosphere in information processing which compensates for the increasing abstraction, formalization, denaturalization and depersonalization of what had been, two hundred years ago, a thoroughly non-technical area: communication and information.
But on this an even longer and more difficult paper would have to be written.
Paper for the Winterschool on Abstract Software Specification at the Danish University of Technology
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Zemanek, H. (1980). Abstract Architecture. In: Bjøorner, D. (eds) Abstract Software Specifications. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 86. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-10007-5_34
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