The Shape of Data (2022)
This article explores the design philosophy behind data representation in programming languages, specifically comparing how different languages handle data notation. The author uses Clojure and Rust examples to illustrate the benefits of consistent data structures.
Why it matters
Understanding data representation is fundamental to software architecture and the design of efficient, maintainable programming systems.
( This is part of a series on the design of zest . See the list of posts here .)
Some assorted musings on how data is represented in programming systems, with no clear thesis.
Mostly focused on how application-level data is represented, manipulated, viewed, stored and transmitted, as opposed to how new types and data-structures are implemented within a single language.
Also not an essay promoting clojure - I just use clojure for a lot of the examples because it's the only language I'm familiar with that gave deliberate thought to their data notation.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in