understanding the norms map about conformity HOT 1 CLOSED

:txes being a list of lists with maps in them does seem a little strange, doesn't it. I'll try to explain the reasoning behind this.

At the lowest level datomic.api/transact (docs) expects its tx-data argument to be a list of transaction statements. A statement is either:

A simple list-style statement:

[:db/add (d/tempid :db.part/tx) :something/title "Foo Bar"]

Or, the more complex map-style statement like the one in the example you cited.

:txes is a list of list of statements because you may want the flexibility to attach a single name to multiple groups of statements, transacting them in sequence. For example, you may want to transact schema for multiple different entities in groups, or you may want to define schema in one transaction, then add data to that entity afterwards.

In the code, conformity/ensure-conforms iterates over each list of statements in txes, calling datomic.api/transact for that sub-list.

I would say, if we removed one level nesting (to a single list, as you mentioned), then the key would more appropriately be called :tx. I'm torn as to whether it would be worthwhile to muddy the conformity/ensure-conforms code with a ":tx means :txes with this one list" semantic, but I would certainly entertain it if the implementation was clean.

I hope this helps, don't hesitate to ask any other questions you might have.

from conformity.