# Terminology

S2 uses different terminology from S1. Here is an overview:

layer

  There are 6 layer types in S2. Each type provides and/or overrides particular types of functions & properties. These include: core (the base), i18nc (internationalization for the core), layout, i18n, theme, and user.

style

  A style is a set of 1-6 layers. At minimum a style includes a core layer (at present, there's only one) and can contain 0 or 1 of each other layer type. The only options for a style (outside of its layers) are its name and whether it's public or not.

layout

  A layout is the most important & influential of the different layer types, excluding the core which is built-in and users can't create or modify. The layout defines the look and feel of the style. The other layers just tweak the layout. A layout layer is roughly analagous to an S1 style.

property

  Both core and layout layers can define properties which the end-user can modify using a graphical wizard. When defining a property you define its datatype, optional min/max values, set of possible values for a drop-down, widget type to offer, etc..

constructional property

  The core layer defines some properties which are recognized by the system and inspected prior to constructing the data structure which S2 code is given. The global function prop_init(), optionally implemented by the layout layer, is responsible for setting the constructional properties if it's inappropriate to expose them directly to the user, or if they need to be setup based upon other properties the user did choose. The constructional properties are indicated in the core layer documentation.