What is “Orthogonality”?

Question

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

What are some examples of Orthogonality?

Answer 1

Broadly, orthogonality is a relationship between two things such that they have minimal effect on each other.

The term comes from mathematics, where two vectors are orthogonal if they intersect at right angles.

Think about a typical 2 dimensional cartesian space (you typical grid with X/Y axes). Plot two lines: x=1 and y=1. The two lines are orthogonal. You can change x=1 by changing x, and this will have no effect on the other line, and vice versa.

In software, the term can be appropriately used in situations where you're talking about two parts of a system which behave independently of each other.