What is “Orthogonality”?

Question

What does \"orthogonality\" mean when talking about programming languages?

What are some examples of Orthogonality?

Answer 1

If you have a set of constructs. A langauge is said to be orthogonal if it allows the programmer to mix these constructs freely. For example, in C you can't return an array(static array), C is said to be unorthognal in this case:

int[] fun(); // you can't return a static array.
// Of course you can return a pointer, but the langauge allows passing arrays.
// So, it is unorthognal in case.