computer science

Minimo

Minimo is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Minimo rather than just read about it. In short: Minimo (from "Mini Mozilla") was a project to create a version of the Mozilla web browser for small devices like personal digital assistants and mobile phones. The project aimed to make it easier for developers to embed parts of Mozilla into systems with limited system resources (for example, machines with low amounts of RAM).

Key takeaways

Minimo belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Minimo to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Minimo from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Minimo (from "Mini Mozilla") was a project to create a version of the Mozilla web browser for small devices like personal digital assistants and mobile phones. The project aimed to make it easier for developers to embed parts of Mozilla into systems with limited system resources (for example, machines with low amounts of RAM).

Background The Minimo Project was created to test the feasibility of porting a full-function desktop browser engine to advanced mobile devices. To minimize the use of system resources Minimo initially did not include some of Mozilla's functionality, such as support for SVG, although continuing experiments sought to include all the features of the Mozilla codebase. In addition, the browser used small screen rendering technology to reformat Web pages for pocket-sized displays and allowed a platform for UI experiments on mobile devices. The user interface was designed to take up minimal screen space, with a single 8px high toolbar and a hidden-by-default address bar. Other user interface functionality, such as bookmarks, history, and search, was migrated into a special homepage called the Homebase. Because Minimo is based on the Gecko infrastructure, developers can decide to build specific versions and evaluate other features such as the canvas, SVG support, and more. Chris Hofmann created the Minimo project shortly after leaving Netscape Communications in 2003, under funding from Nokia's Maemo team. He single-handedly saved the project from being canceled many times. Currently Chris works for the Mozilla Corporation. Chris was also responsible for some of the Minimo key features such as the Homebase bar, a format for displaying bookmarks more amenable to mobile devices. Early Minimo development centered on ARM devices (such as Hewlett-Packard's iPAQ) with around 64MB of RAM, running Familiar Linux and the GPE Palmtop Environment (where it was the default browser). Minimo 0.1 was released for this platform in 2004. The lead Minimo developer, Doug Turner, headed this and additional Mozilla mobile projects such as the Mozilla labs project named Joey. The Mozilla Foundation hired Turner in December 2004 to work full-time on Mobile projects. Minimo was funded by Nokia and others. Nokia's involvement became public in mid-2004. Chris and Doug teamed up with web developer Marcio Galli as he focused in user interface aspects and mostly creating built in applications for Minimo using HTML instead of XUL — these were refereed in the source code as extensions but served as concept for web-based mobile apps featuring Flickr, Google Maps, and more. A Windows CE version of Minimo was created for Pocket PC 2003 software development kit. The first public build of Minimo for Windows CE was made available in February 2005. In June 2006, the 0.16 release of minimo included tabs, a "homebase bar" for fast navigation to frequently used web sites, and featured support for many advanced web development capabilities that made the mobile browser easier to use. On December 17, 2006, Turner, in his blog, acknowledged the slow pace of development, and revealed that Mozilla developers were exploring alternatives for Gecko-based web browsing on mobile handsets. Turner issued an invitation for others to "step up" as his own development priorities shift. Version 0.2 came out in March 2007 and represented a product targeted for mobile developers. Minimo 0.2 included and upgraded interface, and support for Windows Mobile 5. On November 27, 2007, project head Doug Turner announced that the project was no longer supported. By 2008 Doug Turner had begun on yet another mobile web browser, this time known as Firefox Mobile or Fennec.

Criticism Probably because it was in the early stages of development, the Windows Mobile version of Minimo performed significantly slower than expected. The quality of rendered pages is congruent with the well-respected layout engine it implemented (Gecko), but the program had very high memory and hardware requirements compared to what was typically available on most handheld platforms (e.g. 64 megabytes of RAM, 206–624 MHz ARM-compatible CPU). Version 0.2 was recommended for developers targeting mobile devices or interested in AJAX- and Web Services-driven Web application for the mobile space. Minimo was compatible with many Web 2.0 applications, such as Gmail.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Minimo

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Minimo claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Minimo before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Minimo ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Minimo

In research: Minimo appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Minimo in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Minimo is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Discontinued mobile web browsers, Embedded Linux, Free web browsers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Minimo outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Minimo in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Minimo means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Minimo out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Minimo in simple terms?

Why does Minimo matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Minimo?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Minimo.