Declarative Real-World Abstractions

Abstraction is often described as the key to effective software design, and declarative approaches to software design are often promoted as the most clear and succinct. Unfortunately, language and systems designers often get caught up in the their own little worlds, inventing abstractions and declarative techniques that are justified based on intrinsic values known only to language and systems design specialists. What the designers have forgotten about is the real world. What we should be striving for are declarative abstractions of real world phenomena. In t his paper several examples of such abstractions are described in brief.ion is often described as the key to effective software design, and declarative approaches to software design are often promoted as the most clear and succinct. Unfortunately, language and systems designers often get caught up in the their own little worlds, inventing abstractions and declarative techniques that are justified based on intrinsic values known only to language and systems design specialists. What the designers have forgotten about is the real world. What we should be striving for are declarative abstractions of real world phenomena. In t his paper several examples of such abstractions are described in brief.