Re: Color tray icons possible?

On Apr 23, 2009, at 6:20 PM, Mike Swingler wrote:

> On Apr 23, 2009, at 6:21 AM, Stamenkovic Florijan wrote:
>
> > On Apr 22, 2009, at 20:37, Erik Mattheis wrote:
> >
> > > I definitely agree that color should not be the ONLY indicator,  
> > > but it can be an extremely useful indicator for folks who are not  
> > > color-blind. My current use of the icon is totally cosmetic - just  
> > > a user-selectable icon in several available color choices - but I  
> > > can envision a utility where the color could convey meaning as an  
> > > alternative to different shapes or other visual indicator.
> >
> > I believe that little snitch's net activity monitor uses two bars,  
> > one green, one red, to indicate incoming / outgoing traffic. For  
> > example. While it could be done in grayscale, it would be far less  
> > clear.
>
> This is a very reasonable example. iPulse also uses color in a user- 
> configurable way in spots where text won't fit.
>
> > > My main concern is that Apple's implementation behaves in a  
> > > significantly different way than all the other platforms I've  
> > > tested. I agree with the reasoning behind converting the icons to  
> > > grayscale, and have no problem with this being the default  
> > > behavior, but I think there's still some value in providing a way  
> > > to preserve the color.
> >
> > I think that Apple should leave this as a guideline, and not  
> > enforce it, especially since Apple itself violates it when  
> > necessary. In that sense I perceive this definitively as a bug. It  
> > is impossible to enforce good third-party design. Apple can only  
> > facilitate and guide it. And if your app junks up the interface,  
> > the odds are that the market will reject it. I would most  
> > definitively kick anything flashy or distracting out of the tray.
>
> System.setProperty("apple.awt.SystemTray.EnableColorIcons", "true");
>
> By making it an opt-in, I'd hope that most folks will think  
> carefully about why and how they should use color in the Mac OS X  
> menu bar.

Fantastic! Thanks.

--
Erik
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