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Implications of the view of programs as formal systems

Ekdahl, Bertil LU (2002) International Symposium, MIS 2002 2641. p.100-111
Abstract
The prevailing view of software development as the production of program systems is abandoned in favor of software development as theory building. This suggests that software development properly should be regarded as a deductive activity following the same methodology as is used in all deductive sciences. Programming is merely the description process in the activity of building theories about things in reality. Being the vehicle of theory building, programming may further be considered from a linguistic view. Programs are written in a language and have a proposed meaning; semantics. The main idea is that description and interpretation are complementary in a language; they cannot be fragmented within a language. Seeing programs as... (More)
The prevailing view of software development as the production of program systems is abandoned in favor of software development as theory building. This suggests that software development properly should be regarded as a deductive activity following the same methodology as is used in all deductive sciences. Programming is merely the description process in the activity of building theories about things in reality. Being the vehicle of theory building, programming may further be considered from a linguistic view. Programs are written in a language and have a proposed meaning; semantics. The main idea is that description and interpretation are complementary in a language; they cannot be fragmented within a language. Seeing programs as linguistic objects in this way has a profound influence on most aspects of software development. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
host publication
Metainformatics / Lecture Notes in Computer Science
volume
2641
pages
100 - 111
publisher
Springer
conference name
International Symposium, MIS 2002
conference location
Esbjerg, Denmark
conference dates
2002-08-07 - 2002-08-10
external identifiers
  • wos:000184816300011
ISSN
0302-9743
1611-3349
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
1d951e4b-a9c5-4afa-86e2-3dc1b627a020 (old id 303817)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 11:55:25
date last changed
2018-11-21 20:01:49
@inproceedings{1d951e4b-a9c5-4afa-86e2-3dc1b627a020,
  abstract     = {{The prevailing view of software development as the production of program systems is abandoned in favor of software development as theory building. This suggests that software development properly should be regarded as a deductive activity following the same methodology as is used in all deductive sciences. Programming is merely the description process in the activity of building theories about things in reality. Being the vehicle of theory building, programming may further be considered from a linguistic view. Programs are written in a language and have a proposed meaning; semantics. The main idea is that description and interpretation are complementary in a language; they cannot be fragmented within a language. Seeing programs as linguistic objects in this way has a profound influence on most aspects of software development.}},
  author       = {{Ekdahl, Bertil}},
  booktitle    = {{Metainformatics / Lecture Notes in Computer Science}},
  issn         = {{0302-9743}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{100--111}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  title        = {{Implications of the view of programs as formal systems}},
  volume       = {{2641}},
  year         = {{2002}},
}