The hardest problem in computer science is people; the second hardest problem is designing systems that are able to evolve & adapt to new goals & constraints over a span of many years or even decades
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Yes. Abstraction is just a tool to achieve these goals. A good abstraction in CS is one that mirrors the mental models of the people who manipulate it, and that is also structured in a way that allows for future evolution (modular and hierarchical)
The purpose of finding the right data structs / layering / architecture is to enable collective development & maintenance in a way that can scale to larger teams and that can adapt to ever-changing goals & constraints. A static system no one touches doesn't need good architecture
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Incidentally, this is one thing I've found useful about diving into the old Cybernetics literature, the emphasis on "Variety Engineering".https://harishsnotebook.wordpress.com/2019/04/28/exploring-the-ashby-space/ …
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I think this is also kinda fundamental to what even makes something a formal discipline, the right "models that can effectively coordinate social labor" (as Bogdanov would put it)
End of conversation
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Thanks for the replies, e.g.,
@fchollet. I wonder about a rephrasing; perhaps: the perennial problem in computer science is managing (forever-changing) complexity; people are an exemplar of the problem; abstraction is a/the way CS tries to tackle it.Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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