Why “Toga”? Why the Yak?

So... why the name Toga?

We all know the aphorism that “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”

So - what does a well dressed Roman wear? A toga, of course! And what does a well dressed Python app wear? Toga!

So... why the yak mascot?

It’s a reflection of the long running joke about yak shaving in computer programming. The story originally comes from MIT, and is related to a Ren and Stimpy episode; over the years, the story has evolved, and now goes something like this:

You want to borrow your neighbors hose so you can wash your car. But you remember that last week, you broke their rake, so you need to go to the hardware store to buy a new one. But that means driving to the hardware store, so you have to look for your keys. You eventually find your keys inside a tear in a cushion - but you can’t leave the cushion torn, because the dog will destroy the cushion if they find a little tear. The cushion needs a little more stuffing before it can be repaired, but it’s a special cushion filled with exotic Tibetan yak hair.

The next thing you know, you’re standing on a hillside in Tibet shaving a yak. And all you wanted to do was wash your car.

An easy to use widget toolkit is the yak standing in the way of progress of a number of PyBee projects, and the original creator of Toga has been tinkering with various widget toolkits for over 20 years, so the metaphor seemed appropriate.