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.
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).
I recently bought a camera in Japan (Nikon Coolpix 990, a marvel), and would'nt it be of those pictograms, they could not have found a better way to indicate the so many functions they provide me in full text in such a small monochrome liquid crystal display area on top of the camera.
The *installation* menu is provided with a few words (titles only, which you have to call in superimposition of the picture-destined second color LCD on the back of the camera) in 4 languages (Deutsch, English, fran�ais, Japanese, in alphabetic [Latin!] order of language, Japanese using the Japanese script) but the complex functions use but pictograms, which -- if you're really interested in fully using your camera, you will learn in refering to the manual (106 pages in French, as many pages in the web-abvailable language version of your choice -- on paper I just got the Japanese manual [on the Japanese web site they offer -- in English and Japanese (normal for Japan) -- a replacement in the language of your choice if you return the original manual, which I did, asking for a French one -- but in the meanwhile I downloaded the excellent French manual on the web). Don't worry, there is an all-automatic mode, the default one.
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 (%= )...
Alain LaBont�
Qu�bec
