android.R.drawable.ic_menu_home - can not use - Android Developers

The old Google Groups will be going away soon, but your browser is incompatible with the new version.
Message from discussion android.R.drawable.ic_menu_hom e - can not use
Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of mmur...@commonsware.com designates 208.75.86.238 as permitted sender) client-ip=208.75.86.238;
Message-ID: <4B0741CC.3070200@commonsware.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:26:36 -0500
From: Mark Murphy <mmur...@commonsware.com>
User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.23 (X11/20090817)
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: android-developers@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [android-developers] Re: android.R.drawable.ic_menu_home - can
 not 	use
References: <671468b6-5e8c-4023-8d68-b4d1808a3fe9@v30g2000yqm.googlegroups.com> 	<1937dd570911191729q3ad1ac78g9ede65dbc1d192ee@mail.gmail.com> 	<447743f0-559b-486e-9e14-6639e41abc13@a31g2000yqn.googlegroups.com> 	<26b7c7380911192059m3f0fc1fk44ed793e5f84f462@mail.gmail.com> <67ed0eec-6994-414f-a631-c0731a5a2221@g27g2000yqn.googlegroups.com>
In-Reply-To: <67ed0eec-6994-414f-a631-c0731a5a2...@g27g2000yqn.googlegroups.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Max Binshtok wrote:
> I don't get
> why don't you *encourage* such use. And actually make it in a way hard
> to do and explicitly discourage it.

Ms. Hackborn already answered this, but I'll try to elaborate/restate
the point below.

> While people are trying to
> "emulate" some of the icons or make some other icons to be
> consistently looking with the icons used on the platform, and each
> application brings with it all those icons while installed - it could
> be much better to have those icons readily available for reuse.

What icons? The ones in the Android open source platform? The ones in
HTC Sense? How about the ones in MOTOBLUR? Or perhaps you were thinking
of the ones on the ARCHOS 5 Android tablet? It's not like those are all
the same or anything.

Freedom is rarely free. There are always tradeoffs. Android gives device
manufacturers the freedom to change up the UI in cosmetic ways, for
whatever reason the manufacturer chooses. The tradeoff is that
manufacturers will have the utter audacity to actually use that freedom,
and change the icons. Perhaps they think their icons provide a material
improvement in the device usability. Perhaps they are just trying to
make a distinctive theme, to help distinguish their devices from the
pack. Perhaps they just have some graphic designers inventing work for
themselves, or a million monkeys at a million copies of Photoshop
cranking out icon sets, or something.

What Ms. Hackborn pointed out is that there is no single icon target for
you to aim for. Yes, you can make icons that blend with stock Google
Experience devices, but those icons may or may not blend with anything
else. Rather than lead you down the primrose path, thinking that there
is One True Icon Set, the core Android team is forcing you to face the
reality that the only thing you can keep consistent is your own icons
within your own app, and you are better served doing that under your own
control from the outset.

Now, in many ways, I agree with you. It would be nice if device
manufacturers wouldn't frak around with the icons. They can fuss with
the home screen to their hearts' content, for all I care, but it would
be nice to have consistent icons. Alas, 'tis not meant to be. I crossed
that mental Rubicon several months back, which might be the thread that
Ms. Hackborn alluded to.

> The only potential problem that I really see with this is that you
> release set X of icons and HTC or someone else will release set Y with
> some of the icons missing

Or looking radically different. Like, say, in living color.

-- 
Mark Murphy (a Commons Guy)
http://commonsware.com | http://twitter.com/commonsguy

_Android Programming Tutorials_ Version 1.0 Available!
Create a group - Google Groups - Google Home - Terms of Service - Privacy Policy
Account Options
