What you're describing sounds a lot like Functional Domain Modeling[0] You mention "compactness" and "invalid states". FDM places great emphasis on ensuring yo

What you're describing sounds a lot like Functional Domain Modeling[0] You mention "compactness" and "invalid states". FDM places great emphasis on ensuring your data model cannot represent illegal/impossible states. I think this is the essence of what you are describing, and the "compactness" is the result. [0] https://www.47deg.com/blog/functional-domain-modeling/ https://www.47deg.com/blog/functional-domain-modeling/