Immutabla

Immutabla is a term used in software engineering to describe a family of techniques, libraries, and conventions that enforce immutability of data objects. In an immutabla approach, once an object is created, its state is not modified; changes yield new objects, often sharing structure to reduce memory usage. This model aims to simplify reasoning about program behavior and improve safety in concurrent or distributed environments.

Core features typically associated with immutabla include persistent (immutable) data structures, structural sharing, and built-in versioning or snapshots. Implementations commonly use copy-on-write updates, ensuring that old versions remain reachable while new versions reflect changes. Value-based equality and equality-by-structure are also common, enabling efficient comparisons without mutating data.

Common usage scenarios include front-end state management in user interfaces, where immutable data makes it easier to detect changes and optimize re-renders; server-side applications that rely on event sourcing or functional pipelines; and data processing tasks that benefit from deterministic transformations and easy rollback.

Adoption and ecosystem vary by language. Several libraries and language features provide immutabla-style primitives, while some environments rely on language-level support for immutability. Trade-offs include performance overhead from constructing new objects and the need for a different mental model for updates and APIs.

See also: immutability, persistent data structures, functional programming, copy-on-write.