[kthielen]

I think that part of the problem is to define data structures in a way that can be produced and consumed in multiple languages, algebraic data types are a good "least common denominator" for this.

Also w.r.t. reinventing the schema for databases, I have got a lot of mileage out of deriving the schema from code. Shameless plug, I have this little project (https://github.com/Morgan-Stanley/hobbes/) where we have a self-contained header-only library to push structured data out of process with minimal latency, query data concurrently with a Haskell-like PL. It works well for our kinds of systems (millions of orders per day, ~1 billion market data ticks, structured log data from multiple systems involved, ...).

[tabtab]

Attributes are usually easier to share than functions and algorithms. That's why I suggest using "data dictionaries" nearby. Most common CRUD idioms are readily attribute-able such that we don't need Turing Complete sub-languages for majority of them. We just need useful code "hooks" to customize when needed, which is the usual bottleneck of attribute-driven development.