À 11:40 2000-06-13 -0600, J.Schneider@epixtech.com a écrit:
Pictograms are problematic because they are often culturally based.
Some
pictograms we have learned, but the original idea behind the
pictograms in
automobiles, VCRs, etc. was that a manufacturer could save money by
not
labeling with a language but instead use a picture that is 'supposed'
to
have universal meaning across all locales. It doesn't work. You can
usually figure out the meaning of some or even most of the symbols
used,
but not all.
[Alain] You can probably say this for the USA and perhaps a fraction of
the USA only.
[Wayne] I disagree. I think the greater the difference in culture, the
greater the diversity in understanding of pictograms.
It works quite well in reality... with just a bit of good will (you have
to have the will to learn, that is the first condition). Probably those who
have not been able to learn pictograms on their VCRs don't know how to
program it, and even in some cases, how to use it either. I'm not sure text
would have helped more. You need to be interested in VCRs, in this case
(and it is not illegitimate not to be interested, of course).
[Wayne] I agree. You must learn the meaning of the symbols. Then they
become very useful. But is that the objective of this discussion? I
thought the question was whether the pictograms should be included in the
Unicode standard.
<snip>
But the flash option -- which most will like to use, show... a flash
pictogram (electric storm flash shape won't change overnight in nature, I
guess)... and the red-eye-reduction flash option shows... an eye (I guess
for the duration of my camera, eyes will still be recognizable in nature --
at least I hope so (%= )...
[Wayne] Now here is an interesting thing that has happened. You and I,
without prior discussion, have recognized and accepted a method of
identifying our comments. That is, we are using square brackets around our
names preceding our comments. On the other hand, you've ended your last
paragraph with "(%= )..." and I don't have any idea what you are trying to
express. I assume it is some sort of expression like a smiley face, :-),
but I just don't understand it. Is it a Québec French pictogram?
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