What is "Orthogonality"?

Solution 1:

Orthogonality is the property that means "Changing A does not change B". An example of an orthogonal system would be a radio, where changing the station does not change the volume and vice-versa.

A non-orthogonal system would be like a helicopter where changing the speed can change the direction.

In programming languages this means that when you execute an instruction, nothing but that instruction happens (very important for debugging).

There is also a specific meaning when referring to instruction sets.

Solution 2:

From Eric S. Raymond's "Art of UNIX programming"

Orthogonality is one of the most important properties that can help make even complex designs compact. In a purely orthogonal design, operations do not have side effects; each action (whether it's an API call, a macro invocation, or a language operation) changes just one thing without affecting others. There is one and only one way to change each property of whatever system you are controlling.