| General Topics |
| Home |
| News |
| Download |
| Install |
| Development Topics |
| Hardware |
| Hacking |
|
quux /kwuhks/ n. [Mythically, from the Latin semi-deponent verb quuxo, quuxare, quuxandum iri; noun form variously `quux' (plural `quuces', anglicized to `quuxes') and `quuxu' (genitive plural is `quuxuum', for four u-letters out of seven in all, using up all the `u' letters in Scrabble).] 1. Originally, a metasyntactic variable like foo and foobar . Invented by Guy Steele for precisely this purpose when he was young and naive and not yet interacting with the real computing community. Many people invent such words; this one seems simply to have been lucky enough to have spread a little. In an eloquent display of poetic justice, it has returned to the originator in the form of a nickname. 2. interj. See foo ; however, denotes very little disgust, and is uttered mostly for the sake of the sound of it. 3. Guy Steele in his persona as `The Great Quux', which is somewhat infamous for light verse and for the `Crunchly' cartoons. 4. In some circles, used as a punning opposite of `crux'. "Ah, that's the quux of the matter!" implies that the point is not crucial (compare tip of the ice-cube ). 5. quuxy: adj. Of or pertaining to a quux. |
Purpose
Talk to most people, and they wouldn't want to put a typical desktop computer in their living room. For one thing, most computers, with their bulky beige cases, keyboards, mice, and monitors are in a sense ugly and certainly don't fit into the decor of most entertainment centers. Also, most computer applications are built with the assumption that the user will be sitting close to the monitor instead of across the room. Yet more and more, PCs are becoming multifunction boxes capable of taking over the role of most components in a common home entertainment setup. With the proliferation of MP3s, DIVx and computers with the ability to play all sorts of media like CDs and DVDs, it makes sense to replace the stereo/vcr/dvd player/etc. with one box that can provide more integration between components. The purpose of this project is to outfit a computer so it fits seamlessly into the living room.
Implementation
The bulk of the code being written for QuuxBox is in Python. QuuxBox consists of a runtime framework of servers, input handlers, and utility libraries that simplify the process of writing applications which cooperate seamlessly. For the most part, the applications we write will be light wrappers around existing linux media apps such as MPlayer and XMMS. Such applications already implement the basic functionality we want, but they either only have a command line interface or have an interface that would not translate well to the living room environment. So, we will be writing new frontends in python using the quuxbox runtime framework. The framework provides a flexible event system, process management, an interface to drawing the display, and a solid RPC (Remote Procedure Call) mechanism for communicating among multiple processes. The development is progressing in stages and currently the event system and RPC mechanisms are in place.
Getting Involved
If you think this project sounds pretty cool, then We Want You! We need a myriad of different people including people to keep this website updated (knowledge of XML/XSLT/HTML and graphical design), developers to work on runtime utilities and write applications (learn Python and Linux media apps), artists to create graphics for our user interface (will be similar to building themes), some people to put together the hardware, and lots of people to learn about the project and help out where they can. Meetings are every Monday night at 8:00 p.m. Also, you will want to subscribe to the Sigunix-l mailing list to get developer announcements and join project discussions.