[joslin01]

I feel like this is a long-winded way of saying what Linus already has famously said:

"Bad programmers worry about the code. Good programmers worry about data structures and their relationships."

The author refactors some code to revolve around a "DashboardStat" and explains it came from "thinking about how the code is derived from the design." Personally, I think it came from putting the data & its structure first.

[gowld]

https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/1631...

gives some of the genealogy of the idea.

http://www.faqs.org/docs/artu/

"Rule of Representation: Fold knowledge into data so program logic can be stupid and robust."

https://users.ece.utexas.edu/~adnan/pike.html

"Rule 5. Data dominates. If you've chosen the right data structures and organized things well, the algorithms will almost always be self-evident. Data structures, not algorithms, are central to programming."