Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!phigate!nlgvax!hans From: hans@nlgvax.UUCP (Hans Zuidam) Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng Subject: Re: Murmurs of Earth icons Message-ID: <279@nlgvax.UUCP> Date: 28 Aug 89 06:58:14 GMT References: <343@aratar.UUCP> <1765BRENT@MAINE> Distribution: comp Organization: Philips Research Laboratories, Geldrop Lines: 23 BRENT@MAINE.BITNET (Brent C J Britton) writes: >How about a smiling face vs. a frowning one? I would suspect these to be >universal (among humans) indicators of "good" and "bad", or even "yes" >and "no" respectively. Which is exactly what I use as an icon for my "Console Tool" on my Sun! By default it uses an obnoxious "Stop" sign which starts flashing when something happens. Most people who see it, think it is great fun and quickly understand what is going on, except that you have to explain the function of the icon in general. There seem only to be a few icons which are of "universal" meaning: clock, mailbox and shell. For people who do not have Suns (yes there are those): the console on a Sun collects all log messages normally. Someone (I forgot who, sorry) wrote a program which immitates such a console. When something happens (e.g. a log message is written to it), the connected icon is replaced by another one. Opening the icon to a window show the message. Hans -- Hans Zuidam E-Mail: hans@pcg.philips.nl Philips Telecommunications and Data Systems, Tel: +31 40 892288 Project Centre Geldrop, Building XR Willem Alexanderlaan 7B, 5664 AN Geldrop The Netherlands