[sugar] On the Naming of Sugar

Fri May 16 16:14:15 EDT 2008

I think this is brilliant!

Marco

On Fri, May 16, 2008 at 9:28 PM, Frederick Grose <fgrose at gmail.com> wrote:
> Nice carbohydrate lesson as well!
>
>          --Frederick Grose
>
> On Fri, May 16, 2008 at 3:08 PM, Benjamin M. Schwartz
> <bmschwar at fas.harvard.edu> wrote:
>>
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>> I think Sugar has a naming problem.  There are a lot of different digital
>> objects being produced by this project, and referring to all of them as
>> Sugar is becoming increasingly confusing.  For example, the discussion
>> about "Sugar on Windows" has been all but incomprehensible, because each
>> author means something entirely different by the term "Sugar".  Similarly,
>> the recent proposals for "inclusion in Sugar" are extremely confusing,
>> since these components will not be required to run Sugar.
>>
>> To resolve this, I am going to attempt to list a number of important,
>> distinct digital objects that this work has produced. I will also
>> introduce cutesy codenames.  I hope that the Sugar developers will adopt a
>> clear set of distinct names, and I do not care if they choose these names
>> or other names.
>>
>> Component: The abstract design of the interface
>> Codename: Sweet (the taste of sugar)
>> Description: "Sweet" is the abstract design of the interface's appearance
>> and behavior, independent of any code actually implementing this style.
>> The mockups at http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Designs represent this
>> component's second major release, or perhaps 2.0-alpha.
>>
>> Component: The base Sugar environment
>> Codename: Glucose (the fundamental, simple sugar used by all life forms)
>> Description: Glucose is the minimal system that must be added to a
>> standard Linux distribution in order to enable Activities to run.  This
>> includes all the python code and graphics files that implement the shell,
>> as well as the Journal.  Glucose's dependencies may include xorg-server,
>> xulrunner, squeakvm, rainbow, etc.  Some of these dependencies may be
>> marked optional by distributions.  Glucose does not include any Activities
>> except those like the Journal that are non-optional.
>>
>> Component: A set of demonstration activities
>> Codename: Fructose (the main sugar in fruit, which is how we're supposed
>> to get our sugar.)
>> Description: The Sugar developers will need  some example set of
>> activities with which to demonstrate Sugar.  This set is Fructose.  The
>> packages in Fructose should be selected to make the resulting environment
>> as impressive as possible for a potential client or user.  Packages should
>> therefore be stable, polished, and exercise the widest possible range of
>> features.  Fructose may also serve as an example for people constructing
>> their own Activity sets.
>>
>> Component: The interface, plus a set of demonstration activities
>> Codename: Sucrose ("table sugar", the kind you buy in the store.  It
>> consists of glucose and fructose, combined.)
>> Description: Sucrose consists of both Glucose and Fructose.  It therefore
>> represents a complete example Sugar environment, ready to be installed
>> through a package manager.  The purpose of Sucrose is so that prospective
>> deployers can install the "sugar-sucrose" package, and immediately say
>> "Wow! Look at all the cool capabilities that this system has!".
>>
>> Component: The base Linux distribution being used by Sugar
>> Codename: Ribose (the sugar used by all lifeforms to control their
>> hardware, in the form of RNA.  It's important, but not sweet.)
>> Description: Ribose is the set of hardware-centric software components
>> that have been developed throughout this project.  It includes the XO
>> kernels, OHM, any init-script customizations, etc.  Ribose should be
>> construed as including all components necessary to boot the system, enough
>> to install Glucose if it has not yet been installed.
>>
>> Component: A complete disk image for Sugar
>> Codename: A starch (starch is composed of multiple sugars bonded
>> together.)
>> Description: We often distribute complete disk images for Sugar, ready to
>> boot.  These images are composed of multiple elements of the above stack.
>> ~ For example, the current Joyride images are composed of Ribose (the
>> non-graphical work) and Glucose (the shell) but not Fructose (the activity
>> package).  Each image series should be named separately, to minimize
>> confusion.  For cutesy codenames, we could have a development build
>> ("glycogen", a starch used to produce Glucose) and a stable build
>> ("cellulose", an extremely stable starch).
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