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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: K-ARTIST: MIME icons for KOffice
From:       James Richard Tyrer <tyrerj () acm ! org>
Date:       2003-12-27 22:48:37
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Casey Allen Shobe wrote:
> James Richard Tyrer (Friday 26 December 2003 17:52)
> 
>>I have posted what I have completed so far at:
>>
>>http://home.earthlink.net/~tyrerj/kde/pics/
> 
> 
> I still think that the icons should reflect the content type of the document, 
> rather than merely containing the icon of the program that happens to open 
> them.

Well, as I said, I think that this is correct for many MIME types.

But, it the MIME type is for a specific application then it is best for it to relate to 
that application.

It is logical for a WordPerfect file to have a MIME type icon with the WordPerfect 
application icon on it (to me that does reflect the content of the file).  But, with a 
PostScript file, there is no application associated with that MIME type and it needs to 
have a MIME type icon reflecting the content of the file.

If you look at the other MIME type icons, you will see that that is currently the way it 
is being done.

There is a better alternative when the data file format actually has an trademark image 
associated with it like SVG and Acrobat.  But, others that appear to be like this such as 
RPM and Real are just using the application's icon.

alternatively, we could have all of the various MIME types for a generic application type 
have the same MIME icon.

For example: have all spreadsheets applications use the generic 'spreadsheet' icon for 
their files.  But then the MIME type icons are not distinguishing between different MIME 
types.  I find it helpful to be able to tell at a glance which spreadsheet files are for 
Quattro Pro and which are for GNUMeric.

OTOH, if you only have one spreadsheet application installed, you might not need this -- 
you might prefer to have all spreadsheet files have the same MIME type icon.

How does Windows and OS/X do this?  I find it interesting that Windows has no consistent 
policy at all.  There are content type icons for DOC, XLS & PPT files, but the MIME type 
icon for HTML has the IE application icon on it.  These (Windows) examples are exactly the 
opposite of what I am suggesting.

You do raise a valid question, this is a usability issue.

--
JRT

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