OpenXTalk Forums

Why do I feel sometimes that the "common heritage IDE" is over-burdened with reduplications?

After all, all those icons on the Tool-Bar have equivalents in the drop-down menus.
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The trouble is that while an open envelope may signify 'messages' to Thee and Me, most of the kids I teach wouldn't know an open envelope if it hit them in the face.

Not meaning to be too blunt, but I said from the outset that oxt lite won't follow any modern UI paradigm, and will look a bit retro.

I'm not likely to want to reverse that. However, there is absolutely nothing stopping someone taking a copy of OXT lite / heavy, or even LCC and building one with a modern skin to appeal to the 'trendy' kids.

I won't be following that path as I disagree with 'modern' interface design.

Well non-modern interface design had no icons at all: only text.
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Mind you, no GUI either!

Hang on, are they not icons? but yes, true - there's varying degrees of 'modern'.
What I mean is that I'm not a fan of the "mobile-os-first" ui approach, as discussed previously.

And, as you mentioned previously:

AND, lest anyone have any illusions, anything I manage to produce will be:
1. Slightly retro.

Exactly that.

You also did say:

I LIKE the coloured icons from past versions:

I do too, and that's what I'm sticking with. If anyone wants a more modern version, they are welcome to pick up OXT and modify after all.

No: definitely should stick with 'static-first', but, of course, avoid, 'fossilised'.

I do like your 'backward step' to the coloured icons: the only question I have relates to the icons: especially as one or two of them appear nonsensical.
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Looks more like an icon for a relationship counselling service than anything to do with stacks.
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Makes me think of DANGER rather than mistakes.
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That's a Terminal emulator: something that the xTalk family is designed to keep away from.

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Honestly:

1. What do those rectangles ahve to do with groups?

2. The 'Edit groups' is so hard to see that it serves no purpose.

3. The 'Select Groups' icon looks like a coloured version of the 'Edit Groups' icon.

Well, I'm not trying to defend LC's choice of icons per-se, however I prefer them over much anything else I've seen recently.

richmond62 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 22, 2024 6:59 pm Looks more like an icon for a relationship counselling service than anything to do with stacks.

It's supposed to show a community, as in multiple members. That persona icon (of which there are two), is a kind of generic user icon - as per computer login screens.

richmond62 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 22, 2024 6:59 pm Makes me think of DANGER rather than mistakes.

The fact the error is 'green' shows no errors. (this is the same kind of warning triangle as xCode or Unity - not that I'm a huge fan of either). Changes colour to reflect other error states.

richmond62 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 22, 2024 6:59 pm That's a Terminal emulator: something that the xTalk family is designed to keep away from.

Yes it is, but these are more 'system messages' or output from code, so I think that's a workable analogy.

richmond62 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 22, 2024 7:07 pm What do those rectangles ahve to do with groups?

Akin to Claris works, pagemaker, Illustrator - multiple rectangles with drag handles being linked.

richmond62 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 22, 2024 7:07 pm The 'Edit groups' is so hard to see that it serves no purpose.

Looks perfectly legible to me, but I'm not trying to resize it by 400%

richmond62 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 22, 2024 7:07 pm The 'Select Groups' icon looks like a coloured version of the 'Edit Groups' icon.

Because they are both mentioning groups, that's not surprising. It's an action you can do with groups, so should resemble the group button while being obviously a separate thing.

Don't know, probably just my take on it - but it makes sense to me.

I'm not adverse to replacing them. I've always liked the isometric style of BeOS icons (and later Haiku).

Those group related menu bar buttons should read something like "Select Group" and "Select INSIDE Group", The icons for that have always bothered me. I was thinking of replacing them with some 'symbolic' (1-color svg) style icon from one of the various 'open-source' icon sets (like Material Icons, Font Awesome, etc.), but it's kind of difficult to find an icon for those which makes visual sense instantly.

I'm in favor of changing any 'floppy-disk-old' icons in the UI.

Also agree about the message box looks like 'terminal' icon. Msg Box is sort of xTalk's std-in std-out so I get why that was the choice, but I have a command-line tool browser stack where that icon would make much more sense.

Nothing really wrong with a fairly old-fashioned icon:
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Especially as, to me at least, the word 'Community' has unfortunate connotations.
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If you want to retain the existing 'Edit Group' icon, at least make the arrow red so we can distinguish it.

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Messages might be electronic:
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Well, something.

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I'd better get outside and water the tomatoes.

I liked your inspector, and the edit group, but I did change the message box, the messages and the sample stacks a bit.

Much improved!

Will those show up in an update, or 1.07?

richmond62 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 24, 2024 10:19 am Will those show up in an update, or 1.07?

Have a look, they should be part of an update available now.

Cripes: 41 changes:
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Well, as case of 'Yes and No'. Some icons replaced, others not.

richmond62 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 24, 2024 1:14 pm Cripes: 41 changes

No, 3 changes but 41 files make up those changes.

richmond62 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 24, 2024 1:14 pm Well, as case of 'Yes and No'. Some icons replaced, others not.

Please see above. I only changed a few, didn't replace them all - as per that post.
I am of course assuming you've restarted the IDE, and that you didn't run the update manually.
Both assumptions by me.