10 Sep
2007
10 Sep
'07
3:13 p.m.
On 9 Sep 2007 at 16:04, woodelf wrote:
If you mean IBM-compatible, then the IBM monitors, right back to the 5151
(original MDA monitor) had the 'sun' for brightness and the 'half moon'
for contrast.
THe PC/AT had icons on the front of the case. The hard disk LED has a
'drum store'-like symbol above it (the one you'd use in flowcharting for
a disk/drum operation), the power-on LED has a 'light bulb' icon and the
keylock has the open and close padlock icons (normally called the 'oil
can' and 'handbag' over here :-))
But the problem with Icons is that they are
culture specfic.
+ This may be a FAN in the USA.
V This is a FAN in Japan.
> This concept is elaborated well in Neal Stephenson's /The Diamond Age/.
Keeping things on-vintage, when were icons first used on PeeCee
hardware?
I have to admit that I'm another one who's mystified by icons; unless
they're part of some very specialized application. Such as in
You are not alone.
musical transcription software, where an eighth note
(quaver for you
in the UK) means just that--to write it out in words would take
longer to interpret than "You want an eighth note? Just click on the
eighth note." "Sixty-fourth note" or "hemidemisemiquaver" is
just
too cumbersome.
Yes, but musical notation is, AFAIK, pretty much standardised, and the
icons used in such a program are those used on printes sheet music too.
Similarly I'd have no problem with an electronic CAD program that let me
choose a resistor by clicking on an icon that looked like --/\/\/-- .
That is one of the standard symbols for such a component, understood
almost universally.
But this is not the case with some of the other icons I see on PC cases.
Darn it, different manufucaturers seem to use similar, but
different-in-detail icons for serial and parallel ports...
-tony