"Derek J. Balling" wrote: >Because that "stupid gear symbol" is rapidly becoming the "language independen >t" symbol for "preferences". So if, perhaps, you can't read the language on t >he screen at all, you can still find the place where you might be able to say, > change the preference for language. > >There is nothing more frustrating than being given a localized version of a pa >ge when you're visiting a foreign country and don't actually read the native l >anguage, and it's not even in an alphabet similar to your own (ie, try visitin >g Israel without speaking Hebrew, and finding the preference for changing your > language back to English... I'd've killed for it to be a universal icon like >the gear rather than yet another word in an alphabet I can't understand).
Ah, but the correct solution is for the browser to send a language preference variable and for the web site to honor it. No need to change from a foreign language by finding the non-obvious place to do that. You know, I went to school and learned to read. I'd much prefer words that I already understand to symbols with no relevant intrinsic meaning that appear differently on every interface. Some folks have simple symbols, other seem to think that high-resolution makes those symbols better. Colors are not standardized and some folks use multi-color symbols. Has anyone tried to explain to a newbie what that symbol is that is used for saving a file? Seen one of those things in the last ten years? That symbol (and many others) has no intrinsic meaning and making the image more "realistic" doesn't help. If I have to "hover" to discover the meaning of a symbol, I've wasted time and I still need to read words. -- Dave Close, Compata, Irvine CA "You can't go to Windows Update [email protected], +1 714 434 7359 and get a patch for stupidity." [email protected] -- Kevin Mitnick _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
