Introduction
In software design, several key principles share a common foundation: the concept of factoring, or breaking complex problems into smaller, manageable parts. Three prominent examples are:
- Unix philosophy: Design programs to do one thing well.
- Black box abstraction: Isolate functionality to focus on core problems.
- Interface-based programming: Build systems from well-defined, interconnected modules.
These principles, though known by different names, all rely on factoring to create efficient, reliable, and maintainable systems. Even when developers aren't sure how to factor a problem, they often intuitively recognize that it should be factored: this notion of factoring has a fundamental role in effective software design.
In this post, we consider how this idea of factoring applies to mathematical theorem proving.... (read 2782 more words →)