entitieswhile

Entitieswhile is a term used in computer science and software engineering to describe a concept or pattern in which an operation is performed on a collection of domain entities as long as a runtime predicate remains true. Unlike a generic while loop that evaluates a scalar condition, entitieswhile emphasizes the entity-centric progression of work, maintaining awareness of each entity’s lifecycle, state, and identity.

Origin and usage: The term appears in discussions within domain-driven design and data-stream processing circles, often in blog posts or lightweight domain-specific languages, rather than formal specifications. It is sometimes used interchangeably with patterns such as entity-based iteration or streaming processing with backpressure.

Mechanics: In practice, an entitieswhile construct iterates over a sequence of entities, applying a transformation or action to each while a condition holds. It may incorporate batching, buffering, or event callbacks when the condition changes, and it often ties into event-sourcing or stateful processing.

Variants: Basic entitieswhile, batched entitieswhile, and reactive entitieswhile differ in how they fetch, group, and emit results. Variants may adjust the granularity of iteration, the handling of failed entities, or the way backpressure is applied.

Applications: Real-time monitoring of entities in a system, game entity management, or extract-transform-load pipelines that need to process records while certain criteria persist. The pattern is most visible in contexts where the identity and state of each entity influence the processing logic.

Critique: The term lacks universal definition, leading to inconsistent semantics across implementations and potentially reducing readability if not clearly specified.

See also: while loop, for-each, reactive streams, domain-driven design, event sourcing.