There’s lots of free code out there—lots of code that you can learn from or contribute to or adapt for your own apps. It’s totally cool. I myself have even released some.
Maybe I’m thick, but what I can’t find is open source icons. These days OS X apps are supposed to have toolbars when appropriate—but there’s no source of standard and freely usable icons for commands like cut, copy, paste, refresh, view in browser, and so on.
Not every small developer has an art department or can afford to hire someone to do icons.
I propose, to all the icon makers out there, a website for open source icons. Any Mac developer could use the icons in their software as long as they give credit (with a URL) to the person who made the icons.
I’d be happy to do the site programming. I’d be happy to host it. I just need to hear from some actual icon designers that would like to participate. Whaddaya say?
Update 3:10 p.m.: Scripting News asked, “Why only Mac developers?” Answer: not necessarily only Mac developers. It’s just that I can verify and test Mac icons far more easily. But it would be cool to have Windows and Linux icons too.
02:37 pm #
Help! I’m having a very hard time coming up with a cool application icon for an app I’m working on.
This app—a Cocoa app—will be free, and I think there’s a pretty good chance it will get on lots of desktops.
If you’d like to create an app icon, send me email and I’ll tell you a bit more about the app confidentially.
I can’t offer much—except the sincere thanks of a grateful Cocoa developer and, of course, credit in the About box, help pages, and on the website. (Your name plus a link to a URL of your choice.)
02:23 pm #
Addendum to the below on supporting older browsers—this site looks good in Lynx. It works, it’s readable, it’s usable.
It’s not that Lynx is so important. It barely registers on my user-agents page. But it is an indicator.
There’s an A-B-A structure going on here. The earliest websites—before tables and font tags and all that complicated stuff—worked well in Lynx. The HTML was simple and structural.
Then we got all that complicated stuff, and websites started looking like hell in Lynx. (Many still do.)
And now we’re returning to simple HTML, not unlike the HTML of 1994. More structural markup, less of that complex and weird junk. Layout is done through style sheets.
Sites designed that way look good in Lynx. You don’t even have to try. I didn’t go out of my way to make this site work in Lynx.
I’ve even thought about adding a best-viewed-with-Lynx button. But Lynx users wouldn’t be able to see it.
10:27 am #
I agree with Brent Ashley on not supporting older browsers, particularly Netscape 4.x.
I propose a new rule: if you’re using standard-compliant HTML, and it doesn’t work with a given browser released last century, then you don’t have to care—unless the person paying you tells you you have to care.
09:50 am #
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