Ep 042: What Does It Mean to Be 'Data-Oriented'?

Functional Design in Clojure

Each week, we answer a different question about Clojure and functional programming.

If you have a question you'd like us to discuss, tweet @clojuredesign, send an email to [e-mail], or join the #clojuredesign-podcast channel on the Clojurians Slack.

This week, the question is: "What does it mean to be 'data-oriented'?" We merge together different aspects of Clojure's data orientation, and specify which of those help make development more pleasant.

Selected quotes:

• "Clojure has the corner on data."
• "Other languages have data too, it's just locked in little cages."
• "Data is inert, it can't harm you."
• "Because Clojure is expressed in its own data structures, and those structures are simple, that makes Clojure syntax simple."
• "Find a good way to represent the information that you want to work with, in a way that feels appropriate for the subject matter."
• "If you find a good way of representing your information, that representation tends to be pretty stable. All of the change is in the functions you use to work with it."