Daniel Jackson

A revolutionary concept-based approach to thinking about, designing, and interacting with software As our dependence on technology increases, the design of software matters more than ever before. Why then is so much software flawed? Why hasn’t there been a systematic and scalable way to create software that is easy to use, robust, and secure? Examining these issues in depth, The Essence of Software introduces a theory of software design that gives new answers to old questions. Daniel Jackson explains that a software system should be viewed as a collection of interacting concepts, breaking the functionality into manageable parts and providing a new framework for thinking about design. Through this radical and original perspective, Jackson lays out a practical and coherent path, accessible to anyone—from strategist and marketer to UX designer, architect, or programmer—for making software that is empowering, dependable, and a delight to use. Jackson explores every aspect of concepts—what they are and aren’t, how to identify them, how to define them, and more—and offers prescriptive principles and practical tips that can be applied cost-effectively in a wide range of domains. He applies these ideas to contemporary software designs, drawing examples from leading software manufacturers such as Adobe, Apple, Dropbox, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, and others. Jackson shows how concepts let designers preserve and reuse design knowledge, rather than starting from scratch in every project. An argument against the status quo and a guide to improvement for both working designers and novices to the field, The Essence of Software brings a fresh approach to software and its creation.

Why Concepts Matter for Great Design

The Essence of Software

眉村卓

The Administrators are colonial governors trapped between conflicting demands of Federation government, native inhabitants, and Terran colonists. This collection of four novelettes touches on key stages in the development of the Administrator system and the robots designed to support and protect it.

Administrator

Design by concept is a new approach to creating software. A software product--whether an app, a service or a system--is viewed as a collection of interacting concepts, each with its own purpose, structure and behavior. Concepts can be invented afresh, but they can also be reused, exploiting the knowledge embodied in previous successful designs.This book explains what concepts are and why they are central to software design; shows examples of concepts (from the most effective and ingenious to the most flawed and frustrating) taken from well-known applications; and presents design principles that can identify and eliminate flaws in existing and new designs.

A New Way to Think about Software

Design by Concept

A new approach to software verification introduces Alloy, a language that captures the essence of software abstraction with an analysis that is fully automated. In Software Abstractions Daniel Jackson introduces a new approach to software design that draws on traditional formal methods but exploits automated tools to find flaws as early as possible. This approach—which Jackson calls "lightweight formal methods" or "agile modeling"—takes from formal specification the idea of a precise and expressive notation based on a tiny core of simple and robust concepts but replaces conventional analysis based on theorem proving with a fully automated analysis that gives designers immediate feedback. Jackson has developed Alloy, a language that captures the essence of software abstractions simply and succinctly, using a minimal toolkit of mathematical notions. The designer can use automated analysis not only to correct errors but also to make models that are more precise and elegant. This approach, Jackson says, can rescue designers from "the tarpit of implementation technologies" and return them to thinking deeply about underlying concepts. Software Abstractions introduces the key elements of the approach: a logic, which provides the building blocks of the language; a language, which adds a small amount of syntax to the logic for structuring descriptions; and an analysis, a form of constraint solving that offers both simulation (generating sample states and executions) and checking (finding counterexamples to claimed properties). The book uses Alloy as a vehicle because of its simplicity and tool support, but the book's lessons are mostly language-independent, and could also be applied in the context of other modeling languages.

Logic, Language, and Analysis

Software Abstractions

logic, language and analysis

Software abstractions

The Fate of America's Missing Airmen in China During World War II

Fallen Tigers

Concept Design

It’s time to re-think your relationship with technology. It’s time to tackle what is becoming known as: “The silent killer of mental health”. Do yоu find yourself checking уоur phone еvеrу fеw mіnutеѕ? Do you suffer from headaches, eye problems, and/or sleep issues? Do you check for notifications even when watching a film or TV? Are you worried that your child is addicted to their phone? Do you regularly check your phone when out socializing? Do yоu fееl аnxіоuѕ if separated from уоur рhоnе? Are you аfrаіd that уоu'll mіѕѕ ѕоmеthіng іf уоu dоn't сhесk уоur dеvісе? If you answer yes to any of these questions, then you will benefit from a digital detox and digital minimalism. In this book, you’ll discover how digital devices can seriously affect both your physical AND mental health. You’ll also learn simple and highly effective strategies that will lead you to a better, more efficient, and healthier use of your devices. You can’t see it, you can’t feel it, but it is slowly and dramatically harming you. Your recovery starts here!

Digital Detox and Digital Minimalism

Isaac Mitchell

Or The Unfeeling Father. An American Tale ...

Alonzo and Melissa

An American Tale

Alonzo and Melissa, Or the Unfeeling Father

A revolutionary concept-based approach to thinking about, designing, and interacting with software As our dependence on technology increases, the design of software matters more than ever before. Why then is so much software flawed? Why hasn't there been a systematic and scalable way to create software that is easy to use, robust, and secure? Examining these issues in depth, The Essence of Software introduces a theory of software design that gives new answers to old questions. Daniel Jackson explains that a software system should be viewed as a collection of interacting concepts, breaking the functionality into manageable parts and providing a new framework for thinking about design. Through this radical and original perspective, Jackson lays out a practical and coherent path, accessible to anyone--from strategist and marketer to UX designer, architect, or programmer--for making software that is empowering, dependable, and a delight to use. Jackson explores every aspect of concepts--what they are and aren't, how to identify them, how to define them, and more--and offers prescriptive principles and practical tips that can be applied cost-effectively in a wide range of domains. He applies these ideas to contemporary software designs, drawing examples from leading software manufacturers such as Adobe, Apple, Dropbox, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, and others. Jackson shows how concepts let designers preserve and reuse design knowledge, rather than starting from scratch in every project. An argument against the status quo and a guide to improvement for both working designers and novices to the field, The Essence of Software brings a fresh approach to software and its creation.

Anastasia Veneti

Darren G. Lilleker

This book offers a theoretically driven, empirically grounded survey of the role visual communication plays in political culture, enabling a better understanding of the significance and impact visuals can have as tools of political communication. The advent of new media technologies have created new ways of producing, disseminating and consuming visual communication, the book hence explores the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of visual political communication in the digital age, and how visual communication is employed in a number of key settings. The book is intended as a specialist reading and teaching resource for courses on media, politics, citizenship, activism, social movements, public policy, and communication.

Visual Political Communication

Or, The Unfeeling Father. An American Tale ...

Alonzo and Melissa; Or, The Unfeeling Father

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Setting Forth Their Hardships and Difficulties, Caused by the Barbarity of an Unfeeling Father

A Short Account of the Courtship of Alonzo and Meliss

Photographs and stories of people who have coped with and overcome depression, anxiety, trauma, and other challenges. "In MIT professor Daniel Jackson's recent book, Portraits of Resilience, being resilient means being vulnerable. It a gives a glimpse into how students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—one of the most competitive and elite universities in the world—cope, overcome, and find meaning in their lives." —The Boston Globe More than 15 million Americans grapple with depression in a given year, and 40 million are affected by anxiety disorders. And yet these people are often invisible, hidden, unacknowledged. At once a photo essay and a compendium of life stories, Portraits of Resilience brings us face to face with twenty-two extraordinary individuals, celebrating the wisdom they have gained on the frontline of a contemporary battle. We hear from a young man who was struck with a debilitating sadness just when his life seemed to have turned around, and a medical student whose self-image was transformed by an antidepressant. We meet a physicist whose troubles led him to reassess the role human connection played in his life, an overachiever who developed one of her closest friendships in a mental hospital, and administrative assistant who grew up with an abusive parent but learned to heal and create a new life for herself. No one is immune to depression or anxiety; all of these narrators achieved success as students, faculty, or staff in the demanding world of MIT. The pressures of a competitive and high-pressure environment will be familiar to many. And the mysterious and overwhelming grip of depression will be recognized by those who have suffered from it. But the search for purpose and meaning that pervades these stories is relevant to everyone. These wise people give us not only solace and reassurance as we face our own challenges, but also the inspiration that challenges can be overcome—and that happiness, while elusive, can eventually be found.

Daniel Jackson

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