Immutables vs MyBatis: What are the differences?

# Introduction 

Key differences between Immutables and MyBatis:

1. **Type Safety**: Immutables enforce immutability at compile time by generating immutable value classes, ensuring type safety throughout the codebase. On the other hand, MyBatis is primarily focused on object-relational mapping for Java and SQL, providing a mapping layer between Java objects and a relational database.

2. **Code Generation**: Immutables relies on code generation to create immutable value classes based on annotations, reducing boilerplate code and enhancing maintainability. MyBatis, on the other hand, uses XML or annotations to map Java methods to SQL queries, providing flexibility in defining mappings.

3. **Functional Programming**: Immutables promote a functional programming style by emphasizing immutability and side-effect-free operations to ensure predictable behavior. MyBatis, while not focusing on functional programming paradigms, allows developers to work with SQL queries in a more object-oriented manner.

4. **Performance**: Immutables can optimize memory usage and improve performance by minimizing object churn and reducing the need for defensive copying. MyBatis may introduce overhead due to the mapping layer between Java objects and SQL queries, potentially affecting performance in certain scenarios.

5. **Ease of Use**: Immutables simplify the creation of immutable classes and provide convenient ways to work with immutable objects, enhancing developer productivity. MyBatis, being a specialized ORM framework, may require more configuration and setup to establish the mapping between Java objects and the database.

6. **Community and Ecosystem**: Immutables has a smaller community and ecosystem compared to MyBatis, which has been widely adopted in enterprise Java development for its ORM capabilities and integration with various databases. This can impact the availability of resources, tutorials, and third-party extensions for each framework.

# Summary

In Summary, the key differences between Immutables and MyBatis lie in their approach to immutability, code generation, functional programming, performance, ease of use, and community support within the Java ecosystem.