Taming the abstract data type: a taxonomy to help information systems designers

The overall aim of our research is to investigate the use of data abstraction in the early stages of the development of information systems. In this paper we suggest a simple classification of abstract data types as a guide to inexperienced system developers in the transition from an initial problem statement to a system description using data abstraction. The classification identifies different roles that abstract data types can play in a system description: providing simple values; providing the ability to calculate with simple values; providing the means to build tuples and sets from simpler types; and providing the means to express the required systems inputs and outputs.