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From: dave@PRC.Unisys.COM (David Lee Matuszek)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: System 8 (What enhancements do people want?)
Keywords: icons, folders
Message-ID: <13804@burdvax.PRC.Unisys.COM>
Date: 7 May 90 20:20:15 GMT
References: <1990Apr20.193426.16869@uswmrg2.UUCP> <5566@okstate.UUCP> <1990Apr25 <67@victoria.cs.utexas.edu> <5069@utastro.UUCP> <700@needmore.cs.utexas.edu>
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Organization: Unisys Corporation, Paoli Research Center; Paoli, PA
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What enhancements would I like to see?

This is rather mundane, but I would like to see better icons for
folders.  I have a hard disk (two of them, actually), and all I ever
see on my desktop anymore are folders.  When I open one, I typically
see a couple of meaningful icons, and several more folders.

I *like* icons.  It's a lot easier, visually, to find the icon for
(say) MS Word than it is to find the Word Processors folder.  All the
folders look the same, and at this point, everything is in a folder.
So I'm suggesting that, instead of the generic "blank folder" icon,
suppose we could have different icons for different folders.

It would be nice to have a visual indication that a given icon
represents a folder, so it would be logical to keep the generic folder
outline, and squeeze an icon into the area representing the front of
the folder (as on the system folder)--but there just isn't enough
room.

Suppose, instead, we expand the folder icon to be the largest possible
square--a black border and a white interior.  Other icons could be
superimposed on this: the icon for the "most important" application in
the folder, or a "representative" icon, or we could roll our own.  For
example, the icon for the Word Processors folder might consist of the
MS Word icon enclosed in a square.

If you think this is a poorly-thought-out idea, you're right.  It's
nothing more than a first crude suggestion for getting rid of all
those uninformative blank folder icons.  

[And yes, I do know about icon docks.  A cool idea, and possibly of
some help; but it doesn't solve the problem of all those identical
folder icons.]

How does this sound?  Any better ideas?

-- Dave Matuszek (dave@prc.unisys.com)
-- Unisys Corp. / Paoli Research Center / PO Box 517 / Paoli PA  19301
-- Any resemblance between my opinions and those of my employer is improbable.
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