On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 06:22:08AM +0200, James Beck wrote: > I have a few complaints about the original logo.
[snipped]
> the visual identity looks like the program was abandoned 10 years
> ago.
I couldn't agree more.
I understand that most of us hackers very conscientiously try not to
judge books by their covers, and this tendency leads to very
outdated-looking websites, etc. While *we* may not be turned-off by a
'90s-style website, we must confront the reality that this is a
stumbling-block to many potential Vimmers.
If we as a community give a care about evangelizing Vim to the rest of
the world (and I really think that all of the T-shirt talk elsewhere
in the thread proves that we do care), it only makes sense to present
Vim in the most attractive way possible. Even if the "marketing-ness"
of it makes some of us cringe inside.
[snipped]
> One reason I finally decided to post this, was because git recently
> redid their logo (and it looked a lot like some of the designs I was
> playing with), and I think the result reminds people that git is a
> powerful, modern tool. I wanted the same for Vim.
Vim is one of the most actively worked-on open source projects that I
follow. That fact alone should be a huge selling-point for a potential
user who is thinking about trying a better editor. Nothing is worse
than falling in love with a decaying, unmaintained program. A casual
user will not get the impression of Vim's vitality from looking at Vim
itself, nor from www.vim.org. An updated logo would be a really easy
way to make this point, especially since James has already done all of
the work.
The way I see it, there are really only three alternatives:
1) you're a WM minimalist who exclusively uses console Vim and
won't notice the new logo.
2) you just really, really like the existing icon.
3) you use gVim, and will appreciate the update.
If you identify with #1, why bother arguing about this? By definition
you don't care.
If you are in line with #2, well, I just don't get you.
As for #3, aren't many Linux distros already use a non-standard icon
for Vim nowadays? I have seen images of a Tango-based Vim icon out on
the webs (I genuinely don't know what the other distros are up to; I
build Vim from source on my Gentoo box and use minimalistic WMs with
the console all of the time), and I think MacVim uses a custom glassy
icon (can't afford a Mac, so again, I must plead ignorance). If this
is the case, I must ask why we wouldn't just modernize the icon at the
top of the project?
tl;dr I like James' proposal.
Cheers,
--
Erik Falor http://unnovative.net
Registered Linux User #445632 http://linuxcounter.net
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