Types, records, and protocols together shape a potent framework that puts the focus on data and avoids extraneous ceremony and complexity. This data-centric approach to types and abstractions allows us to model domains and interactions more faithfully, apply the whole language to those models—such as how we can work with records and maps in a uniform way using the core collection and associative abstractions and functions—and helps us to avoid having to make false choices due to often unnecessary complexities like class hierarchies.