[readthenotes1]

Alexander's thesis Notes on the Synthesis of Form contained the description of the design techniques, low coupling and high cohesion that were later brought into software in the mid-60s.

It's hard to get more fundamental than that, in software at least.

I remember trying to read his four book Magnum opus and found it much too dense. I think he settled on "life" as the quality without a name.

[orthoxerox]

Not "life", "wholeness". I also quit midway through the second book out of four, too much woo.