[sugar] On the Naming of Sugar

[Frederick Grose]

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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