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Interactions of Abstractions in Programming

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Abstraction, Reformulation, and Approximation (SARA 2000)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 1864))

Abstract

Computer programs written by humans are largely composed of instances of well-understood data and procedural abstractions. Clearly, it should be possible to generate programs automatically by reuse of abstract components. However, despite much effort, the use of abstract components in building practical software remains limited. We argue that software components constrain and parameterize each other in complex ways. Commonly used means of parameterization of components are too simple to represent the multiple views of components used by human programmers. In order for automatic generation of application software from components to be successful, constraints between abstract components must be represented, propagated, and where possible satisfied by inference.

A simple application program is analyzed in detail, and its abstract components and their interactions are identified. This analysis shows that even in a small program the abstractions are tightly interwoven in the code. We show how this code can be derived by composition of separate generic program components using view types. Next we consider how the view types can be constructed from a minimal specification provided by the user.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, USA

    Gordon S. Novak Jr.

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  1. Gordon S. Novak Jr.
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Nebraska - Lincoln, 115 Ferguson Hall, Lincoln, NE, 68588-0115

    Berthe Y. Choueiry

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of York, Heslington, York, Y010 5DD, UK

    Toby Walsh

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© 2000 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Novak, G.S. (2000). Interactions of Abstractions in Programming. In: Choueiry, B.Y., Walsh, T. (eds) Abstraction, Reformulation, and Approximation. SARA 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 1864. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44914-0_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44914-0_11

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-67839-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-44914-0

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