iconsthat

Iconsthat is a term used in programming language theory and software architecture to denote a construct that ties a value to a persistent identity, ensuring the value remains constant and uniquely referable across modules and runtime boundaries. Although not an established language feature, iconsthat appears in theoretical discussions and experimental languages as a way to model identity-aware constants.

Conceptually, an iconsthat consists of a value and an identity tag. A registry stores the pair and guarantees that any reference to that tag resolves to the same immutable value. This model supports referential transparency and canonicalization across heterogeneous execution environments, though practical implementations must address serialization, versioning, and cross-language interoperability.

Typical scenarios include configuration constants shared by distributed components, resource identifiers that must not be duplicated, or keys in a localization system where the identity of the key matters beyond its textual form. Implementation approaches vary: a central service, a distributed registry, or language-level constructs in experimental languages.

Critics note potential complexity and coordination costs; supporters see benefits in deduplication, consistency, and easier reasoning about identity. Because iconsthat is largely hypothetical, real-world adoption depends on advances in system design and cross-language interoperability. See also referential transparency, canonicalization, and constant pooling.