Once upon a time, programmers talked to their clients. Later, they were given a written specification instead. These specifications became standardized with special forms and formats. Academics explored special logics to use in them. Goguen and Burstall proved that all these logics could be described in the abstract entity referred to in the title of this paper: the institution [1]. Their definition is reiterated in this paper.

Briefly, an institution has a specialized vocabulary (symbols and sentences) that expresses properties applying to a set of models. A satisfaction relation connects models to sentences. Category theory expresses the necessary axioms. This paper adds another layer of abstraction that covers most ways of composing and structuring specifications. It (of course) uses category theory and is incomprehensible without it.

The paper is short, clear, and to the point. It may lead researchers to better specification languages. However, I don’t expect it to change mainstream software development, which has ignored or distorted formal logic. The trend is to return to working with clients unencumbered by paperwork and formulae.