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+# Introduction
+
+
+
+This article is made of two main sections: generic design principles,
+and Jolly's design principles.
+
+The generic design principles were applied during the development of Liquid Prompt.
+They should remain valid for its default theme as well as for the Jolly theme.
+However, the folowing section only discuss their implementation within the Jolly theme.
+
+The Jolly's design principles are more or less specific to the Jolly theme.
+
+
+## What is a Prompt?
+
+There are two kind of computer scientists: those who use the command line,
+and those who are retired. Even developers who embrace highly integrated development interfaces have some kind of terminal available in some panel of their IDE.
+Like it or not, the shell is a core part of everyday life for most of the people expecting their computer to work for them.
+
+Now the shell actually has access to a lot of information about the computer.
+And most of this information is about the current state of the work environment,
+which is of the highest interest to the user.
+However, by default the shell only shows very little information unless you ask specifically for it.
+Furthermore, the only location on the screen available for the permanent display of anything is the "prompt".
+
+The prompt is this string of characters displayed right in front of the line where you type your commands.
+In the most common default configuration, it displays only three pieces of information:
+the user, the hostname, and the path —`user@hostname:path $ `.
+
+But it can display more! And this is the objective of prompt systems.
+Those "prompts" (to be short) actually add a lot of information to this area of the command line.
+For example, the most common feature is to display the state of the Git repository the user is in.
+
+
+## Prompt Features
+
+This document will refer to feature sets,
+as a way to group the information in broad categories.
+
+Feature categories are:
+
+1. **shell essentials**: features usually found in a classic prompt (path, user, exit codes…), useful in everyday use (jobs, sensors, multiplexer integration…), or generally considered important (themes…).
+    1. **situation**: who is connected, and how.
+    2. **location**: where (which path) the user is.
+    3. **sensor**: states of the system (temperature, load, spaces, etc.).
+    4. **feedback**: information from the last command (error, runtime).
+    5. **warnings**: information conditionning the next command (admin rights).
+2. **version control**: Git, Mercurial and co.
+    1. **remote**: information related to interaction with a remote repository.
+    2. **local**: information related to the local repository.
+3. **environments**: dynamic configuration detection (virtual env, shell variables, containers…).
+4. **toolsets versions**: current version of specific tools (programming languages, build chains, tools…).
+5. **miscellaneous shell features**: shell-related features considered less important (network, terminal title, hyperlinks…).
+6. **services**: services running permanently, online or on the machine (music, weather…).
+
+Theses categories are delineated with the main use of the terminal in mind:
+
+- Features in the *shell essentials* category is what you will need the most often, whatever you are doing in your terminal.
+- If you are a programmer, you will pay additional attention to the *version control* and *environments* categories.
+- If you are a devops, the *dev context* category is also of interest to you.
+- If you do sysadmin, the *miscellaneous* category may contain some mildly interesting features.
+- If you need features in the *services* category, you probably misunderstood what a *command line interface* is, or you are looking for a *status bar* (which a prompt system can be).
+
+
+# Generic Design Principles
+
+The rationale of a prompt system is that it is actually useful to have an immediate access to the current *state* of the system.
+Seeing a *state change* right where the user actually looks is a very good *feedback* on their actions.
+But of course this feedback should not come in the way of how the user works.
+
+States should be chosen and displayed according to their importance for the user's work.
+
+More precisely, a good prompt is a prompt which is:
+
+- **accentuated**: it makes more visible the feedback for more important state changes, while not polluting the visibility of stable/anecdotal states,
+- **focused**: it targets states that are actually useful to the user *during a work session*,
+- **seamless**: it does not product friction with the user workflow,
+- **scoped**: it targets states that can change by themselves or be changed by the user,
+- **measured**: it embraces the fact that some states change less often than others (and thus avoids being just a collection of states that only rarely change),
+- **configurable**: be easy to immediately adapt the display of information, if needed.
+
+
+## Accentuated
+
+The prompt should be organized in several sections, which importance should
+be obvious to the user, depending on their location on the screen and/or their styling.
+
+Section styling should not overflow on neighbor sections.
+For instance, given that the terminal is organized as a grid of characters,
+the background of two close character will blend.
+Therefore, one should maintain a certain degree of contrast between sections
+that are touching each other but have a different semantics.
+
+> Jolly is organized in four sections, spread on three lines:
+> 1. The leftmost part of the first line is the first in reading order.
+>    It is thus used for stable and important information.
+> 2. The third line is holding the actual prompt, where the user types.
+>    It is thus of high importance, and used for the *version control*,
+>    *feedback* and *warning* sections.
+> 3. The rightmost part of the first line is last in the reading order.
+>    It is thus used to display transient states.
+> 4. The second line cannot be of background-colored, or it would overflow on
+>    the first and last line. It is thus of low importance and holds the
+>    *environments* and *toolset versions* sections.
+
+
+## Focused
+
+Information that changes often and/or that is important regarding the user's main tasks
+should be easier to see.
+
+In a regular prompt, most of the text has no background color by default.
+Any text which has a background color is thus easier to spot.
+
+Therefore, important information should be displayed in a background-colored segment,
+while less important information can be displayed in a foreground-colored one.
+
+Information related to the *situation* and *location* of the user should
+always be considered important, as they may drastically alter the workflow of the user.
+
+> In Jolly, the *toolsets versions* and *environment* feature sets are to be
+> displayed in a foreground-colored section of the prompt,
+> while the others are in background-colored sections.
+
+
+## Seamless
+
+
+## Scoped
+
+States that are measured and not directly changed by the user should be hidden by default.
+Counters that can fall down to zero should be hidden by default.
+
+> In Jolly, *sensors* are hidden by default, while *situation* and *location*
+> information are always shown, even if set to the default state.
+
+
+## Measured
+
+States that are expected to change often during a work sessions should be considered
+important.
+States that rarely change or evolve slowly are less important.
+
+> In Jolly, *sensors* are grouped on the righmost part of the
+> first line of the prompt.
+> Information about version control is however close to the actual prompt.
+
+
+## Configurable
+
+Each aspect of theming should have a related configurable variable.
+
+
+# Jolly's Design Principles
+
+## Stability
+
+## Proximity
+
+## Sectioning
+
+## Accessibility
+
+## Semantic Spaces
+
+## Semantic Sequences
+
+## Semantic Thresholds
+
+