On Tue, 21 May 2002, William Overington wrote: > Yes, I feel that it is worth putting forward a proposal for the open and > closed padlock symbols, yet wonder if I may make mention that maybe the > words should be "unlocked" and "locked" as adjectives rather than "unlock" > and "lock" as imperative verbs. > Surely, a padlock is either unlocked or locked, so that the symbols indicate > the state in which a system now exists. This then raises the question as to > whether there should be symbols for "unlock" and "lock" as imperative verbs, > such that those symbols would indicate where to click so as to change from > being in an unsecure state to a secure state or from being in a secure state > to an unsecure state. This then gets into the fact that with a padlock one > needs a key to unlock it but one does not need a key to lock it, yet using a > key symbol to mean unlock would seem to go against the way that computer > systems are organized in that a key might seem more naturally to mean lock, > notwithstanding that one does not need a key to lock a padlock.
I'm not a big fan of pictographs and prefer to see real writing, but as an alternative to a locked and unlocked padlock, isn't there also an intact key and a broken key as allographs? I think Netscape Navigator once used these. Thomas Chan [EMAIL PROTECTED]
