How CilwaCode Got Its (Newest) Name

This project has had a few names over the years. It started out as Organica, a name I loved for its connotation of something natural and alive. There were no websites with that name, so I thought I was in the clear. Why I didn't grab the domain name then, I don't know. But by the time I got around to it, there was a company called Organica that had the domain name and a trademark on the name. So I had to change mine.

After some agonizing over the name, I settled on Organizica. It was a bit of a mouthful; I pronounced it "or-gone-EYES-zih-kuh," which had connotations of something organized and alive, and it was close enough to Organica that I could still feel the original vibe. I grabbed the domain name immediately!

Alas, ownership of a domain name doesn't necessarily give you the right to use the name itself. While there had been no websites at http://organizica.com, there was a company called Organizica that had a trademark on the name. So I had to change mine again.

The problem became obvious every time I tried to say "Organizica" out loud. Even I kept tripping over the syllables. If the guy who invented the name can't pronounce it, that's gotta be a sign.

So I went back to the drawing board—and by "drawing board" I mean the Sumerian/English Dictionary, you know, the one with the yellow cover. Starting from the Sumerian root NAM.TIL, meaning "life" or "nature," and stirring in a little dash of Sanskrit, I arrived at Namtira. Well, to be honest, Copilot arrived at it. But I helped, and I made the final choice.

The name feels right. Nam carries the Sumerian sense of destiny or essence; tira evokes movement and life. Together, Namtira suggests something like "the living way"—a fitting name for a shell whose whole point is to let you work the way nature intended, starting from what you want to do rather than from the tool somebody else decided you should use.

And then, in October 2026, everything was renamed again. The shared library, which had been NamtiraLib, became CilwaLib; the website framework, which had been NamtiraWeb, became CilwaWeb; and the project as a whole became CilwaCode. Cilwa is my own surname. When I turned 75 I decided this code was part of my legacy—along with the novels, the albums, the music videos, and my kids—and a legacy ought to carry the family name. The section of this site that documents it moved along with it, from 35.Namtira to 35.CilwaCode. Old links to the library and framework pages still work; they simply redirect to the new addresses.

Looking at it now, the name is kind of obvious: if my library code is named CilwaLib, the whole project is, well, Cilwa's code. But it wasn't that easy.

What Is CilwaCode?

In computing, a shell is the layer of software that sits between you and the operating system. It's what you actually see and interact with—the desktop, the icons, the taskbar, the file browser. Windows Explorer is a shell. So is the Mac Finder. They decide how you locate your files, launch your programs, and organize your work. Most people never think about the shell because it feels like "just the way computers work"—but it doesn't have to be that way.

The basic premise of CilwaCode, and how it differs from all other shells, is that instead of being bottom-up (starting an app to work on a document) it is top-down (start with the document and do things to it). This is a much more natural way to work. When people begin a project, they say, "Today I am going to write my novel, or plan my vacation, or update my contacts." No one ever gets up in the morning saying, "Today I am going to use Microsoft Word! or Excel! or Outlook!"

No one on this side of the Microsoft testing department, that is.

With CilwaCode, one works on one's document—whether it's an email, novel, painting, photo, song or video—with total freedom to include one kind of item in any other. No user would ever have to "buy an app" with a learning curve of its own; instead, one might choose to "buy an enhancement" that will be applicable to any kind of object.

Imagine telling a photo to crop itself, instead of having to start a photo editing app, load the photo into it, crop it, and save it. Imagine all changes to your documents being stored instantaneously—no "Save" button, no lost work. That's the CilwaCode vision.

What Does This Look Like?

When your computer starts up, you should immediately see your user folder, with its high-level contents such as Music, Pictures and Videos. (You could always add other topics, such as Recipes, Artwork, or Email.)

But nowhere is there any sign of something called an "app."

Instead, by drilling down to a document you'd like to work on, you simply read it; or by clicking on a tab or button, instead you could edit it…or play it…or send it to a printer or email contact or nearby cell phone.

Like any sheet of paper, a CilwaCode document can contain any combination of things you like. Words, numbers, spreadsheet cells, captioned photos…the sky's the limit. And formatting will be easy because it's done with CSS (cascading style sheets).

And that works because Desktop Minder draws its documents with a built-in web browser engine!

Building Blocks, Baby Steps

A project this big would only be possible for a single person to implement if I had a library of reusable code to draw on, so the first step was to build that (CilwaLib). I had to build a document model, a way to store documents, a way to display any kind of document, and a way to manipulate documents—all without any preconceptions about what form those documents would take. I have made my professional career as a programmer by building libraries like this, so I had a good head start.

The structure is this:

1. CilwaLib

   This is a Windows library of basic classes and extensions and custom and/or enhanced controls, and full reusable dialog boxes. It's intended to continute to every further component of the project, and to be useful in its own right for other projects as well. Think of it as the foundation of the house I'm building.

2. CilwaWeb

   Built on CilwaLib, this is a specialize framework for building responsive, thoroughly and automatically indexed, document-centric websites. This very site, which is built on CilwaWeb, is a demonstration of its capabilities. While it's designed to be infinitely expandible, it's intended especically for information-rich sites such as blogs, portfolios, and less so for online stores, social media, or other sites that are more about interaction than information.

The desktop I imagined has a name now: Desktop Minder, a Windows program built on CilwaLib. It is as close as I have come so far to a document-centric desktop. Instead of one desktop crowded with icons, you have as many as you like, each with its own wallpaper and its own purpose. Documents know what kind of thing they are, so a song plays, a photograph can be viewed and edited, and a web page offers View, Edit and Source—no separate program to launch. Mail, contacts, a jukebox and a calendar live in the same place, and plug-ins can add more. I wrote about how it came to be in The Operating System of My Dreams.

I was on the team of six that developed the first commercially-successful email system. This time the team is me, and a few AI assistants.

CilwaLib

By: Paul S Cilwa	Posted: 4/10/2026		Page Views: 136
Hashtags: #Namtira #VisualBasic #VBNET #ClassLibrary #CilwaLib
A shared .NET class library containing common code used by the other Namtira components, as well as general-purpose routines usable by any .NET application.

CilwaLib is a shared .NET class library written in Visual Basic. It started as a handful of extension methods—the kind of small conveniences that .NET almost provides but never quite does—and has grown into a collection of modules, classes, and custom controls that any WinForms application can reference.