Peter Naur's seminal 1985 paper 'Programming as Theory Building' presents a fundamental rethinking of programming as the construction of mental models rather than just writing code. The paper argues that the true value in software development lies in the programmer's understanding and theory about how the program works, which is distinct from both the code and its documentation. This perspective has had lasting influence on software engineering practices and education.
Background
Peter Naur was a Danish computer science pioneer and Turing Award winner known for his work on programming languages and software development methodologies. This paper is considered a classic in the field of software engineering.
- Source
- Lobsters
- Published
- May 19, 2026 at 05:42 AM
- Score
- 8.0 / 10