In
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...
, vanilla is the term used to refer when
computer software
Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
At the lowest programming level, executable code consist ...
and sometimes also other
computing
Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientific, ...
-related systems like
computer hardware
Computer hardware includes the physical parts of a computer, such as the case, central processing unit (CPU), random access memory (RAM), monitor, mouse, keyboard, computer data storage, graphics card, sound card, speakers and motherboard.
...
or
algorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing ...
s are not
customized from their original form, i.e., they are used without any customizations or updates applied to them. Vanilla software has become a widespread ''
de facto
''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with '' de jure'' ("by l ...
'' industry standard, widely used by businesses and individuals. The term comes from the traditional standard flavor of
ice cream
Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as ...
,
vanilla
Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus '' Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the Mexican species, flat-leaved vanilla ('' V. planifolia'').
Pollination is required to make the plants produce the fruit from whic ...
. According to
Eric S. Raymond
Eric Steven Raymond (born December 4, 1957), often referred to as ESR, is an American software developer, open-source software advocate, and author of the 1997 essay and 1999 book ''The Cathedral and the Bazaar''. He wrote a guidebook for the ...
's
The New Hacker's Dictionary, "vanilla" means more "default" than "ordinary".
Examples of how to use "vanilla" in a sentence:
* As one of the earliest examples,
IBM's
mainframe
A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise ...
text publishing system
BookMaster
SCRIPT,Stuart E. Madnick and Allen G. Moulton (1968) IEEE Transactions on Engineering Writing and Speech, Vol. EWS-11, No. 2, pp. 92-100. any of a series of text markup languages starting with Script under Control Program-67/Cambridge Monitor Sys ...
, provides a default way to specify which parts of a book to publish, called "vanilla", and a fancier way, called "
mocha".
* The term "vanilla" is sometimes also used for hardware components. For instance, in the 1990s non-upgraded
Amiga
Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore International, Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and sign ...
home computers were called "(plain) vanilla"; similarly, it was later also applied to
PC parts.
* For
Unix
Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, ...
-based
kernel
Kernel may refer to:
Computing
* Kernel (operating system), the central component of most operating systems
* Kernel (image processing), a matrix used for image convolution
* Compute kernel, in GPGPU programming
* Kernel method, in machine learn ...
s, a "vanilla kernel" refers to a kernel that has been unmodified by any third-party source. For instance, the vanilla
Linux kernel
The Linux kernel is a free and open-source, monolithic, modular, multitasking, Unix-like operating system kernel. It was originally authored in 1991 by Linus Torvalds for his i386-based PC, and it was soon adopted as the kernel for the GNU ...
is often given a
Linux distribution
A Linux distribution (often abbreviated as distro) is an operating system made from a software collection that includes the Linux kernel and, often, a package management system. Linux users usually obtain their operating system by downloading one ...
–specific "flavour" by being heavily modified.
* In his book ''End of Ignorance'', Charles Winborne refers to a static page that is ″only a text file, but one that links to accompanying files″ as a plain-vanilla
web page.
* Fans of the video game ''
Minecraft
''Minecraft'' is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made public in May 2009 before b ...
'', usually refer to the game without mods as "vanilla".
*
JavaScript
JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior, of ...
, when used without any libraries or third party plugins is referred to as "vanilla JavaScript".
See also
*
Commercial off-the-shelf
Commercial off-the-shelf or commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) products are packaged or canned (ready-made) hardware or software, which are adapted aftermarket to the needs of the purchasing organization, rather than the commissioning of ...
*
Mod (video games)
Video game modding (short for "modification") is the process of alteration by players or fans of one or more aspects of a video game, such as how it looks or behaves, and is a sub-discipline of general modding. Mods may range from small changes an ...
*
Out of the box (feature) An out-of-the-box feature or functionality (also called OOTB or off the shelf), particularly in software, is a native feature or built-in functionality of a product that comes directly from the vendor and works immediately when the product is place ...
*
Plain vanilla
Plain vanilla is an adjective describing the simplest version of something, without any optional extras, basic or ordinary. In analogy with the common ice cream flavour vanilla, which became widely and cheaply available with the development of art ...
*
Turnkey
A turnkey, a turnkey project, or a turnkey operation (also spelled turn-key) is a type of project that is constructed so that it can be sold to any buyer as a completed product. This is contrasted with build to order, where the constructor builds ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vanilla Software
Computing terminology
de:Vanilla software