Computational abstraction steps

Abstract

In this paper we discuss computational abstraction steps as a way to create class abstractions from concrete objects, and from examples. Computational abstraction steps are regarded as symmetric counterparts to computational concretisation steps, which are well-known in terms of function calls and class instantiations. Our teaching experience shows that many novice programmers find it difficult to write programs with abstractions that materialise to concrete objects later in the development process. The contribution of this paper is the idea of initiating a programming process by creating or capturing concrete values, objects, or actions. As the next step, some of these are lifted to a higher level by computational means. In the object-oriented paradigm the target of such steps is classes. We hypothesise that the proposed approach primarily will be beneficial to novice programmers or during the exploratory phase of a program development process. In some specific niches it is also expected that our approach will benefit professional programmers. © JOT 2010.