Black icons in LC 8 DP 14

[Richard Gaskin]

RM wrote:

 > ?????
 >
 > Are these to become the standard revMenuBar button icons, or is this
 > a blip?

I'm glad it's happened, and v8 is the right time for this to happen.

The shift to monochrome icons has been a pervasive trend across the UI 
world for some years now, and I rather like how it simplifies the 
gestalt of the palette's appearance.

In fact, I'd been keeping a mental wish list of low-hanging fruit that 
can help improve the overall look of the product for some time now, and 
moving to monochrome icons in revMenuBar was on my list.

Coupled with the engine enhancements for appearance, v8 is shaping up 
well as the version that can attract newcomers better than any version 
before it.


 > If they are to become the standard revMenuBar button icons can there
 > be a community vote as to whether they are preferable over the
 > previous coloured ones?

More useful would be to poll people who *aren't* in our community yet,

We need the number of LC developers to grow a multiple beyond our 
current audience, so the opinions of people with long historic 
familiarity with LC are in some ways less important than those who've 
not yet been introduced to it.

Democracy is useful for many things, but I'm not sure UI is among them. 
  In fact, I'd argue squarely against it for several reasons:

How many in our audience are specialists in UI design?

One of the complaints I hear from architects is that because all of 
their clients live in homes and know how to use a pencil, they all fancy 
themselves fully qualified to do the work of an architect. :)

Using a computer, or even developing software, by itself is not the same 
as spending decades studying UI and UX.  We wouldn't put diagnosis and 
prescription for coronary conditions to vote, we'd hire a doctor. IMNSHO 
the same goes for UI.

This is one of those areas where meritocracy trumps democracy, and we 
see meritocracy as the favored model for participation in a great many 
open source projects.  In the well run FOSS projects all views are 
solicited and welcome, but those ultimately entrusted to see a vision 
through are those who've demonstrated accomplishment in the area in 
question.

Besides, the beauty of open source is that anyone who really wants just 
about anything can always have exactly what they want.

For example, I've grown very fond of Ubuntu's Unity desktop environment, 
but I don't imagine for a minute that folks using anything else will 
have the same preference.

So rather than require other people to design the LC menu bar to look 
how I personally prefer it, I just made a short script that does it on 
startup and now I have something much closer to my personal preferences 
while everyone else is still free to enjoy anything they like:
<http://fourthworld.net/lc/revmenubar.png>

If you really want full-color icons it's not hard to make a plugin that 
delivers that.

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Systems
  Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
  ____________________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com                http://www.FourthWorld.com