06davis@ac.dal.ca (11/09/90)
Please forgive me, all those who are knowledgeable, but what are icons as applied to computers. I know that they are in plain 'ol English, but what are they and what kind of system do they run on? No flames please, I might just go and slit my wrists. Davis B.
koontz@cam.nist.gov (John E. Koontz X5180) (11/10/90)
Icon has two meanings in the computer context, neither having anything to
do with the Black Virgin of Kiev.
1) In the context of this newsgroup it is a programming language called
Icon. Icon is a descendent of SNOBOL, but emphasizes the succeed/fail
attribute of programming language statements in SNOBOL, rather than
the pattern matching application per se.
2) More generally, an icon is a representation of a file or process in
certain graphics-based user interfaces. You click on the icon with your
mouse to get a menu of things that you can do to the file or with the
application. For example, suppose that you are conducting a terminal
session in a window. You can reduce the window to an icon (perhaps a
picture of a terminal), and stick it in the corner of your screen while
you do something else. Later you can click on the icon to get a menu that
includes the option of converting the icon back into a window in which
there is a terminal session.
ed@iitmax.IIT.EDU (Ed Federmeyer) (11/10/90)
In article <5726@alpha.cam.nist.gov> koontz@cam.nist.gov (John E. Koontz X5180) writes: > [what does Icon mean?] >1) In the context of this newsgroup it is a programming language called > Icon. Icon is a descendent of SNOBOL, but emphasizes the succeed/fail > attribute of programming language statements in SNOBOL, rather than > the pattern matching application per se. One thing I've been wondering, and I've not seen it in the forward to the Icon book, is WHY is the language named "Icon"?? By the way, as long as I'm asking, does anyone know how SNOBOL and SPITBOL get thier names... You know, almost _every_ FORTRAN book mentions that its name comes from FORmula TRANslation, or BASIC is Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (or whatever) :-) -- //==========================================================================\\ || Ed Federmeyer || Internet: ed@iitMax.iit.edu || || "Unauthorized access is || Bitnet: sysed@iitVax || || strictly unauthorized." || Office: (312) 567-5981 || \\==========================================================================//
egul@hp-lsd.COS.HP.COM (Ed Gulczynski - FIS) (11/13/90)
an icon is a bitmap, created by either you or by the application shell, that pictorally represents an application, process, login, ...... whatever, to which you can jump from the current window. This is usually done via a mouse. "Clicking" the icon will usually start a script which otherwise you would have to run or key in manually. A picture (icon) is worth a thousand words, get it?