Glossary

A

 * a11y
 * short for "accessibility"


 * accessibility
 * The idea that software should be usable by everyone, regardless of the tools they use to access it. This is relevant to people with disabilities, people on mobile devices or others with small screens, and a variety of other populations. Growstuff aims to be highly accessible. More information: Accessibility.


 * agile
 * A broad term for a family of software development methodologies. Growstuff uses an agile methodology called Extreme Programming.


 * API
 * Application Programming Interface. A way for third-party programmers to access the data on the Growstuff site.  More information: API

B

 * BDUF
 * Big Design Up Front. Acronym commonly used in Extreme Programming (XP)/agile discussions. See also: YAGNI.

C

 * capistrano
 * used to deploy our software to the servers.


 * coach
 * One of the people leading this iteration of development on the Growstuff project. Coaches work in pairs. More information: Coaching


 * crop
 * A thing you can grow. One of the core concepts of Growstuff's design. More information: Crop.

D

 * Dreamwidth
 * A web site and open source project with a very inclusive culture, which is one of the inspirations for Growstuff. More information: Dreamwidth


 * DW
 * short for "Dreamwidth"

E

 * extreme programming
 * The software development methodology used by Growstuff. More information: Extreme Programming

G

 * git
 * the version control system used to manage Growstuff's source code. More information: Git


 * github
 * the hosting service where we keep our source code. More information: Git

I

 * IRC
 * A real-time chat facility that many of the Growstuff team use to communicate. More information: IRC.


 * i18n
 * short for "internationalization"


 * internationalization
 * making a piece of software in such a way that it can be translated into other languages. See also: "localization". More information: Internationalization


 * iteration
 * A period of time over which software is planned, developed, and released. Growstuff uses regular iterations to develop and release new features/stories to its website.  More information: Iteration.

L

 * l10n
 * short for "localization"


 * localization
 * translating a piece of software into another language. See also: "internationalization". More information: Internationalization

M

 * member
 * What we call someone who has a Growstuff account. We prefer this to "user", etc. See this mailing list thread.

P

 * pass
 * To give up working on something that's too hard/frustrating/time-consuming. This is encouraged, to prevent burnout. More information: Passing.


 * pull request
 * When a pair has finished work on a story, they request that it be pulled into the main development branch. This integrates it with everyone else's work.  More information: Git

R

 * Rails
 * Short for "Ruby on Rails"; the web framework used to build Growstuff. See http://rubyonrails.org/


 * Ravelry
 * A knitting website at http://ravelry.com/ which was one of the inspirations for Growstuff. Growstuff is, in a way, "open-source Ravelry for food gardeners".


 * RSpec
 * used to run the tests for our software.


 * Ruby
 * The programming language in which Growstuff is primarily written. See http://www.ruby-lang.org/

S

 * slug
 * The version of something's name that is used in the URL for that thing. For instance, the URL for "Seville Orange" would be /crops/seville-orange so the slug is "seville-orange". Not to be confused with the slimy things that eat your crops.


 * story
 * A chunk of software development work, described from a user-centric perspective. More information: Story.


 * system name
 * The name of something (eg. crops) on the Growstuff site that's used if no localisation exists, or the user hasn't set a language preference. This will often, but not always, be in English.

V

 * variety
 * A specific variety of a certain crop. For instance, "tomato" is a crop while "beefsteak" is a variety. More information: Crop

W

 * WEIRD
 * (acronym) Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, Democratic -- used of countries/cultures. Eg. "In WEIRD countries..."

X

 * XP
 * Extreme Programming

Y

 * YAGNI
 * You Ain't Gonna Need It (a mantra from the world of Extreme Programming, against Big Design Up Front, aka BDUF)