Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!uunet!cme!cam!koontz
From: koontz@cam.nist.gov (John E. Koontz X5180)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.icon
Subject: Re: What are ICONS?
Summary: What an icon is.
Keywords: icon
Message-ID: <5726@alpha.cam.nist.gov>
Date: 9 Nov 90 16:42:27 GMT
References: <2219@ac.dal.ca>
Organization: National Institute of Standards & Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
Lines: 20



Icon has two meanings in the computer context, neither having anything to
do with the Black Virgin of Kiev.

1) In the context of this newsgroup it is a programming language called
   Icon.  Icon is a descendent of SNOBOL, but emphasizes the succeed/fail
   attribute of programming language statements in SNOBOL, rather than
   the pattern matching application per se.  

2) More generally, an icon is a representation of a file or process in
   certain graphics-based user interfaces.  You click on the icon with your
   mouse to get a menu of things that you can do to the file or with the
   application.  For example, suppose that you are conducting a terminal
   session in a window.  You can reduce the window to an icon (perhaps a 
   picture of a terminal), and stick it in the corner of your screen while
   you do something else.  Later you can click on the icon to get a menu that 
   includes the option of converting the icon back into a window in which
   there is a terminal session.