[OT] "The Condescending UI" (was: Do we need Win95/98/Me support?)

[Nick Sabalausky]

"Walter Bright" <newshound2 at digitalmars.com> wrote in message 
news:jfk7t3$2l8v$2 at digitalmars.com...
> On 1/23/2012 3:51 AM, foobar wrote:
>> A few additional points:
>> # Microsoft allegedly does a lot of usability research and they came up 
>> with the
>> upcoming Metro design which relies on text instead of icons. # Regarding 
>> the
>> English language - Icons are supposed to be universal so it saves money 
>> for
>> companies to localize their software. Localized UIs do present a trade 
>> off in
>> usability: It depends which terminology is more common, the local or the 
>> foreign
>> (English). E.g. "print" is easy to translate and would be intuitive for 
>> non
>> techies but "bittorent" probably isn't.
>
> One huge issue with "universal" icons is that each company copyrights 
> theirs. So every user interface uses deliberately different icons.

IP is evil. That's what I love about China: Not much respect for IP. Thanks 
to China's disregard for such things, I have an adaptor that lets me use the 
fantastic DualShock2 on Xbox1, GC or PC. That would *never* happen in the US 
or any heavily-US-influenced country. The corporations and lawyers just 
wouldn't allow it.