I learned about the concept of an orthogonal command set a long time ago. The way I remember it, I may have two concepts mixed:

• A command set with little overlap in commands.
• A command set with "complete coverage" of the problem space (there is a command to do anything you might imagine).

One expected result of an orthogonal command set: A command that is invoked to perform a specific action on one thing can be invoked to perform the same action on another thing. (This was before objects were even a gleem in somebody's eye (I think).)

(Like I said, it was a long time ago )

Think about the axes of a graph -- if they are at right angles (orthogonal), each point on the graph has one and only one set of coordinates. If the axes are at some other angle, some points on the graph can be specified by two different sets of coordinates, and some points cannot be specified at all. (I should draw a picture.

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• () RandyKramer - 16 Jul 2002
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