Program icons: generic vs. branded

[Aaron J. Seigo]

On Saturday 19 April 2008, Friedrich W. H. Kossebau wrote:
> I find the definition of programs which should use generic icons very
> unprecise. What is a "more advanced" program? 

i think that's a qualitative measure and one that's probably somewhat 
subjective. it's a sort of common sense guideline, really (and probably 
somewhat poorly worded). the "more advanced" bit really applies less to the 
capabilities of the application itself and to the functionality gap it fills 
in the desktop; so okular is very advanced in several ways but fills 
the "generic" space of "document reader"

> And what is the reasoning for generic icon (names) for programs?

so the fact that the apps are different can be treated as an implementation 
detail in the user facing UI bits (e.g. application launchers)

> Some programs follow the spec, like Okular (graphics-viewer-document) and
> Ark (utilities-file-archiver), others like KCalc (kcalc) don't. But isn't
> Okular a more advanced program, while KCalc isn't?

kcalc should probably be using the generic icon, really.

> Does KDE follow the spec? How do I find out if e.g. Okteta, the new hex
> editor in kdeutils :) , should use a branded icon or a generic one?

really good question. i personally don't think "hex editor" is a "generic" 
problem space from the average user's POV though.

> If the reason for generic icon names are icon themes, well, what about

they are.

> using names like graphics-viewer-document-okular and
> utilities-file-archiver-ark? So if the branded icon is not included in the
> icon theme the fallback will be the generic one?

that's a good idea, actually =)

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
humru othro a kohnu se
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43

KDE core developer sponsored by Trolltech
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