Paradigm and Software Engineering

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Paradigm and Software Engineering

• Erek Göktürk (erek_at_ifi.uio.no),M. Naci Akkøk
  (nacia_at_ifi.uio.no)
• Department of Informatics, University of Oslo

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Outline

• Motivation
• What is paradigm?
• Current attitude towards paradigms
• Paradigm as an actor in software engineering
• Conclusion

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Motivation

• In SE Paradigm is heavily used
• Discussions of superiority Object-oriented
  paradigm is the best ever
• Discussions of suitability Object-oriented
  paradigm is/isnt suitable for x y z
  domain/tasks
• The meaning of paradigm is overloaded and vague
• What exactly do we mean by paradigm?
• Why and how a paradigm influences the process and
  product of SE?

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Motivation

• In this paper, we
• Trace the meaning back in history
• General (philosophical)
• In software engineering
• Exemplify the current vagueness in usage of the
  term
• Suggest a working definition for paradigm
• Discuss the current status in software
  engineering (w.r.t. paradigms)
• Identify some questions regarding paradigms in
  software engineering, and provide some hypothesis

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What is Paradigm?

• Etymologically para- (alongside)
  -deiknunai (to show)
• Greek paradeigma example
• Works of Plato and Aristotle a third form of
  reasoning
• Induction, deduction, paradeigma (example)
• One of the constituents is more knowable
• Typical issues related to the category they
  define (e.g. cheese paradigm)
• Not very favorite of philosophers until late 20th
  century
• Modern meaning coined by Foucault, and esp. Kuhn

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What is Paradigm?

• Philosophically related to
• Ontology
• The ontology
• An ontology (AI)
• Epistemology
• Paradigmatic relationships (should be) in ontology

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What is Paradigm?

• Paradigm and computing
• Word appeared after late 60s, early 70s, esp.
  after 2nd ed. of Kuhns book (1970)
• The date suggests that usage was in Kuhnian sense
• Alan C. Kay (regarding new computing principles
  through Smalltalk) a new Kuhnian paradigm in
  the same spirit as the invention of the printing
  press

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What is Paradigm?

• A fairly random sample
• Google search software engineering paradigm
• Trend (from usage)
• Method, procedure, generalization of process
  (from usage)
• Methodology (from usage)
• A technique, the process model (a definition)
• An approach to software design and programming (a
  definition)
• Usage from some papers in computing
• High level paradigm
• Programming paradigm
• Design paradigm
• Object-oriented paradigm
• Constraint satisfaction paradigm
• Probability theory is probably the best
  understood paradigm in
• The paradigms used for temporal reasoning
• xxx framework enables a new paradigm for Internet
  services
• most basic algorithmic paradigms in computational
  geometry
• intrusion detection paradigm
• employee-manager-salary paradigm

What does Paradigm mean?
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Current Attitude Towards Paradigms

• We propose a working definition
• A paradigm is an ontology of the world, which
  necessarily includes some representational tools
  and methods for an observer to build models.
• An ontology, for leaving room to relativism or
  perspectivism.

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Current Attitude Towards Paradigms

• Major paradigms in software engineering/design
• the procedural paradigm (emphasis on algorithm),
• the data-hiding paradigm (emphasis on data
  organization),
• the data-abstraction paradigm (emphasis on types
  and operations),
• and the object-oriented paradigm (emphasis on
  commonality between types)
• New approaches having potential to be regarded as
  paradigms in the future
• The component-based paradigm (emphasis on reuse
  through integration),
• the aspect-oriented paradigm,
• and the agent-oriented paradigm (emphasis on goal
  orientedness)

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Current Attitude Towards Paradigms

• Causal relationship between PL and paradigm work
  both ways
• PL ? paradigm
• Paradigm ? PL
• New (immature) paradigm Partly based on not
  having a PL counterpart

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Current Attitude Towards Paradigms

• Most of the current research regarding paradigms
• Confinement in one paradigm (normal science?)
• Representing one paradigm using another (UML and
  CB)
• The work done is claimed to provide an
  operational definition. Is it enough?
• We suggest that a theory of paradigms (in
  software engineering/design) is needed.

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Paradigm as an Actor in Software Engineering

• Paradigms are panacea (cure of all pains)
• In every field
• In SE as well
• OO the latest rescuer new paradigm.
• Evidence?
• CB a deja-vu?
• What makes a paradigm different from another?
• One paradigm using anothers toolset. What does
  it mean?
• Comparative scale between paradigms?
• We think differentiating properties might be
  found in the relation of paradigm and ontology,
  and psychology

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Paradigm as an Actor in Software Engineering

• Software
• an executable model,
• the result of a series of (mechanical and/or
  mental) transformations of models
• What role does paradigm play in this software
  building process?

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Paradigm as an Actor in Software Engineering

• From the ontology to an ontology paradigm
  determines what is representable
• object-oriented maps the ontology onto objects
  and their type relations,
• Data-abstraction onto types and operations
• Component-based onto components,
• Agent-based onto agents and communication.
• Some paradigms can be expected to fit some
  tasks/domains better, but which paradigms to
  which tasks/domains? How can we assess
  suitableness?

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Paradigm as an Actor in Software Engineering

• What about complex tasks with different
  constituents requiring different paradigms?
• One answer might be by modeling one with the
  other, thereby exporting the conceptualization
  done by one paradigm to the other, but we dont
  know the compatibility scale of paradigms!
• A theory of paradigms might
• constitute of meta-paradigmatic statements
• would act as the common grounds and norms to
  choose and to combine paradigms
• or to show that they are not combinable

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Paradigm as an Actor in Software Engineering

• The PL-paradigm coupling
• What about the question of compatibility of
  paradigms, w.r.t. PLs relationship with a
  paradigm?
• From a translational point of view, this means we
  try to model one paradigm using another. Do we
  know what effects this might have?

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Paradigm as an Actor in Software Engineering

• Human and paradigm Psychological issues
• The ones who prepare the first translation from
  the ontology to an ontology, and those who
  translate one model to another are only human.
• Empirical/cognitive studies on understanding the
  cognitive load created on the designer/model
  builder, and designers/model builders cognitive
  toolset should become a study area.
• How such studies should be conducted is another
  open question

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Paradigm as an Actor in Software Engineering

• Paradigms importance in software engineering is
  parallel to choice of conceptualization and
  communication language in a software engineering
  project
• According to the Sapir-Whorf thesis, choice of
  language decides to a large degree
• what we see,
• how we see and conceptualize what we see,
• and how we reason

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Conclusion

• The choice of paradigm effects the quality of the
  process and the product. Some apparent readings
  of quality parameters might be related inherently
  to paradigms.
• What effects does the paradigm have, we dont
  know for sure yet. Some hypotheses are provided
  in this paper.
• We propose reification of paradigms into
  artifacts through a theory of modeling/design
  paradigms in SE covering the philosophical and
  cognitive aspects.
• We need an awareness about paradigm-related
  issues in SE community.
• Towards this direction, we shared our first
  results/direction of research.