On 2009-January-27 , at 20:20 , ricardo lafuente wrote:
I know what i like, you know what you like.
I think the more this thread goes on, the more it underlines this very point. Both icon sets have merits and issues, but both are good to a point that choosing between them comes to taste rather than a clear discussion of arguments. And by "taste" I do not only mean esthetics, I also mean whether one values consistency over strong visual identity for example.
Given that, I don't think there will really be an end to this type of discussion. But a possible way to decide would be to use the wonderful and large community that has been built around Inkscape.
The Tango theme, as well as the current one, could be tweaked and improved, continuing what a few people have done already and considering criteria that are as objective as possible, such as: - consistency of icons within Inkscape - keeping visual metaphors close to the ones currently used, to avoid a too disruptive change - performance on dark backgrounds - aliasing of outlines This thread could be used to collect suggestions along these lines (as it already has). Tweaking should be done with a time goal, otherwise it will never end. Say another 2-3 weeks. Once this is done, detailed screenshots are made of the two and a call for a vote is passed to the whole Inkscape community: - a news item is posted on the front page - posts are made on the users, devs, testers, translators etc. mailing lists - a poll is set up on the various forums, deviant art community etc. People vote (on a google docs powered form for example) anonymously and without justifying their vote. The point is not to start a Inkscape-community wide flamewar but to get the opinion of the majority. After a voting period (1-2 weeks), the votes are counted and the winner is kept as default. I am not sure the majority is right in every situation but, in this type of choice, a large enough vote ensures that the default theme pleases as many people as possible. On a taste issue, it almost seems like the only solution.
I am only proposing this here as a way to save everyone's time and to avoid further slipping towards strong feelings and strong words. I can post to Inkscape user, user-fr, dev. For this to work it would take some kind of agreement here that it is a sane decision, a couple of people working on each icon set, and synchronization with other folks to post the polls/new items on the various websites at the correct time. Who wants to help?
JiHO --- http://jo.irisson.free.fr/
PS:
[...] And there's not just 'Tango' and 'Default', some of us might have other perspectives as what we want to see on our screens.
Choice is good, but choice is also clutter and adding a pref for that would make Inkscape preferences even more complicated, while there is already a solution to this with ~/.inkscape/icons. This situation seems like a good candidate for "give the best possible default to most users and let power users tweak them in a less obvious way". And, for complete disclosure, this is coming from someone who does not necessarily love any of the two possible sets. I still find them too much in-your-face for a design app. I would prefer a black/grey/white theme a la Adobe which would only leave colors on my canvas and I actually started one. But I still think the best decision would be to avoid yet another pref.