[Tango-artists] whither addressbook?

[Jon A. Cruz]

On Apr 14, 2006, at 11:50 AM, Nathan Willis wrote:

> On 4/14/06, Rodney Dawes <dobey at novell.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 2006-04-14 at 12:07 -0500, Nathan Willis wrote:
> > Well, I did notice that, but I think it still leaves the underlying
> > question unanswered: why is there no addressbook app icon?
>
> Because one has not been drawn, and we are trying to keep the  
> metaphors
> between app icons and mime type icons, different. We want to have the
> metaphors for app icons be tool/brand related, and the mime types  
> to be
> more about the content.
>
> Ah, but it has been drawn; the MIME type icon.  And the MIME type  
> icon is the same as the actions icon for "new addressbook."  In  
> what way is the x-office-addressbook icon about content?
>


But then again, it hasn't been drawn.

:-)

Seriously, though, one needs be try to separate the information from  
the presentation. This is a big point for user interfaces, and very  
much so for icons and themes.

But first to answer your last question...

First, x-office-address-book is under "Standard MIME Type Icons".  
Under MS Windows, the equivalent would be the icon associated with a  
type, not an application.

Secondly, it's description there clarifies things further. That says  
"The icon used for generic address book file types". Again, this is  
for the *file type* (aka the data) and is not intended for the  
application running them. In fact, it could be a mail application  
that supports it, not an "address book" application. The former would  
equate to MS Outlook on MS Windows, while the latter would equate to  
"Address Book" on OS X (which is separate from Mail.app).


Now here is probably the main point. This is the logical meaning of  
the given icon name, not it's physical appearance. Under some themes  
things might appear similar, but then again under other themes the  
"similar" icons might look wildly different.

As long as the names are mapped to logical meaning, not just  
accidental coincidence of appearance, then themeing works and UI's  
can be changed, translated, and localized to specific markets. If, on  
the other hand, the icon names get their logical meaning overloaded,  
things get horribly difficult to switch themes or localize for other  
markets.


Oh... and to "already been drawn", though it might look that way to  
you, the icon looks very different from what I'd expect an  
application icon to look like. So what is the same for one person  
might be different for another person.

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