It’s been just over two years since the publication of The Essence of Software (EOS). In that time, engaging with readers, consulting and teaching to students and practitioners has given me a new perspective on concept design.
In a series of notes (of which this is the first), I hope to share some of the respects in which my understanding has evolved. In addition to having a better sense of what matters most, I think I have a greater appreciation of the obstacles that make concept design seem (at the same time!) trivial to some and obscure to others. I also hope to point to some exciting new directions for concept design—in particular how concepts make it easier to exploit LLMs for generating code.