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 int

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.