Dive into the why and how of Rhyzome

Mycel is a programming language, or to be precise a modeling language, that was designed with the goal to handle all possible business logic. A key feature is, that it is declarative, meaning that it only describes the expected outcome, and not how this outcome is achieved. Rhyzome is an interpreter for this language and handles the actual execution.

For along time, I was under the impression that the declarative nature of the language is the key for its success. It is well known, that declarative languages are easier to understand and reason about, and this is also the case for Mycel. But the real reason goes much deeper.

In programming (esp. in system design), you often talk about coupling of services. The concept is so well established in software development, that it is surprising it is not more discussed in the context of business system design. In traditional systems, you have two types of coupling. When different organizational units access the same business logic, you automatically get coupling. But you also get coupling, when the same business unit has to change their business logic over time, but the data live in the same database table.

Another benefit of Mycel is related to co-location. Related data or logic is combined and stored in the same document, and not spread in multiple places. This build the basis for the organizational scoping/isolation in Rhyzome, which is the foundation for many of the powerful features.

This idea can be taken even further. Another well known programming concept is SOLID. The 'S' (standing for the Single Responsibility Principle) states 'that there should never be more than one reason for a class to change' (while it is often misudnerstood, that 'reason' refers to requirements and not technical events). Business objects (which are called 'Processes' in Rhyzome) do exactly that. They are direct link to the structure, in the business professionaly already think today.

The world of business is not homogenous and finding a common language/ abstraction is impossible. But Mycel is the best shot at this so far.