Data abstraction from a programming language viewpoint

Abstract

This paper traces the development of data abstraction concepts in programming languages. A data abstraction, or abstract data type, describes a collection of abstract entities and operations on the entities. A program which uses a data abstraction can access or modify the entities only through the abstract operations. Specific research topics discussed in the paper include: the role of type in a programming language, the formal specification of the semantics of a data abstraction, data abstraction language construct design issues, type hierarchies, and type-checking.