Some Basic Tenets of Description

Abstract

Description – often referred to as modelling – is fundamental to software development. The developer should always be ready to say of each description: what subject it describes; what it says about its subject; and how it fits with other descriptions in the same development. Sometimes a very informal – even a casual – approach to these questions may be adopted. But often a more careful and explicit approach is needed. This short paper lays out some basic tenets of such an approach.