A definition of abstraction.

Date
2005-07-13Author
Abstract
What does it mean to say that one program is "more abstract" than another? What is "abstract" about an abstract data type? What is the difference between a "high-level" program and a "low-level" program? In this paper we attempt to answer these questions by formally defining an abstraction relation between programs which matches our intuitive ideas about abstraction. The relation is based on examining the operational semantics of the programs, expressed as a set of traces (sequences of states) from a given initial state to a possible final state.
Description
Citation : Ward, M. (1995) A definition of abstraction. Journal of Software Maintenance: Research and Practice, 7 (6), pp. 443-450.
ISSN : 1040-550X
Research Group : Software Technology Research Laboratory (STRL)