Abstraction¶

Good abstractions capture essential properties while hiding accidental complexity, allowing reasoning about systems at appropriate levels of detail

Tension Addressed¶

Depth vs. Breadth

Recognizable As¶

Interfaces that hide implementation; mental models that ignore irrelevant detail; APIs that survive implementation rewrites; concepts that transfer across technologies; "leaky abstractions" as failure modes

Canonical Sources¶

Liskov, "Data Abstraction and Hierarchy" (1988); Spolsky, "The Law of Leaky Abstractions" (2002)

Transfers To¶

Mathematics (abstraction hierarchy), Science (models), Maps (cartographic abstraction), Language (word definitions)

All non-trivial abstractions are leaky to some degree (Spolsky's Law). The goal is appropriate leakiness - hiding what should be hidden while not creating surprises.