Things gathered and kept together on purpose. What makes it a collection is the gathering, not the likeness.

Whether two things can work together without harm. Compatibility is a property of the pair, never of either alone.

A piece broken from a whole that no longer stands. A fragment carries evidence of the break as well as of the thing.

Built of self-contained parts that can be joined or replaced. Modularity buys change at the cost of seams.

A part that is whole enough to handle — one of many, complete in the hand.

To bring an unsettled thing to a settled state. Also to turn a reference into the thing it points at.

A small self-contained interface part doing one job. Named vaguely on purpose, since the point is that it is interchangeable.