Re: Sharing mail icons between MH-E and Gnus

[Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com>]

Reiner Steib <reinersteib+gmane@imap.cc> wrote:

> On Sun, Feb 19 2006, Bill Wohler wrote:
> 
> > Reiner Steib <reinersteib+gmane@imap.cc> wrote:
> 
> >   $g/stock_mail-handling           $ei/gnus/save-draft     -
> 
> We should use $ei/mail/save-draft, I think.

OK.

> >   $g/stock_sort-ascending          $ei/gnus/sort-a-z       [$ei/sort-ascending]
> >   $g/stock_sort-column-ascending   $ei/gnus/sort-1-9       [$ei/sort-column-ascending]
> [ Re-ordered quoting: ]
> > If you're going to move the sort icons, you might as well take this
> > opportunity to use the GNOME names to make it easier to see from whence
> > they came.
> 
> I shortened the names to avoid name collisions for 8.3 systems
> (e.g. sort-column-ascending vs. sort-column-descending).

Good point.

>                                                           Additionally
> the names don't reflect the images' content.

They aren't supposed to since the images' content can change depending
on locale (or skill of artist). Names reflect the images' action. For
example, you use "stop", not "red-hexagon", since in some locales stop
is an entirely different image.

> >   $g/stock_contact                 -                       $ei/mail/alias -> $ei/contact?
> 
> $ei/contact seems more suitable.  We don't have a related Gnus command
> for this icon, but users might bind it to `bbdb/gnus-show-sender' (or
> we could add this tool bar icon by default if `bbdb/gnus-show-sender'
> is bound).

Oops, this shows how important good names are. You interpreted this as
"Show Contact", but that's not what MH-E does with it. The MH-E action
for this image is to add the sender of the current message to
~/Mail/aliases. I suppose $ie/add-contact would be a better name, since
it is general and could be used both by MH-E and BBDB. Would something
like "$ie/show-contact" work instead of bbdb/gnus-show-sender? For
completeness, "$ie/list-contacts" would also be useful as well. Which
GNOME images would you use to indicate these actions?

> >   $g/stock_mail-copy               -                       [$ei/mail/copy]
> >   $g/stock_mail-move               -                       $ei/mail/refile -> $ei/mail/move?
> 
> I don't know about MH-E, but for Gnus I'd not have these functions on
> the tool bar, because the user has to choose the target via the
> mini-buffer prompt (keyboard) after a mouse click.  (Not a good UI, I
> think.)

Are you saying then that only keyboard commands can be used for commands
that have minibuffer input? I think I disagree. The tool bar and menu
helps the user discover functionality. Many commands, such as Save As,
require minibuffer input and are common in menus and tool bars. Commands
that require further input are indicated in menus with ellipsis ("...").

> 
> >   $g/stock_inbox                   -                       $ei/mail -> $ei/inbox ?
> 
> In the meantime, I also use stock_inbox (for
> `gnus-summary-insert-new-articles' in the summary and
> `gnus-group-get-new-news' in the group buffer) instead of
> stock_refresh.

In MH (and MH-E), inc and scan are two separate commands and therefore
(can) have two separate icons (inbox and refresh respectively).

> >   $g/stock_compile                 -		           $ei/mail/repack?
> 
> [In Gnus, somehow similar commands would be
> `gnus-group-expire-all-groups' and `gnus-summary-expire-articles'.]
> But the image stock_compile probably is supposed to visualize batch
> processing, isn't it?

Yes. I wasn't trying to say that "repack" was like "compile", but rather
that the current GNOME icon for "compile" seemed to be a better image
than what we currently have. The question mark above indicates that I
was fishing for other opinions since I wasn't 100% positive.

> >   $g/stock_zoom-out                -                       $ei/mail/widen
> 
> Maybe we should add stock_zoom{,-in,out,prev,next,shift} as $ei/zoom*?
> The zoom images aren't mail-specific.  In Gnus, they could be used for
> some of the limiting commands, (info "(gnus)Limiting").

Agreed.

-- 
Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com>  http://www.newt.com/wohler/  GnuPG ID:610BD9AD
Maintainer of comp.mail.mh FAQ and MH-E. Vote Libertarian!
If you're passed on the right, you're in the wrong lane.


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