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Iconography of the PuTTY tools

chiark.greenend.org.uk

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Re: Iconography of the PuTTY tools

#11

Post by Sharlin »

> I can’t remember why the lightning bolt was yellow. With hindsight that seems the strangest thing about it; cyan would have been a more obvious choice for electricity. Possibly it was just to contrast more with the blue screens of the computers.

I had to stop and consider this, because it seemed to me that yellow was "obviously" the correct color. And indeed a few image searches confirmed this: a yellow lightning bolt is by far the most universal symbol for electricity, along with the standard black-on-yellow danger icon. I'm not sure how far back in history that representation goes, or what its origins are, but I think it's been used ubiquitously in comics and cartoons for a long time.

Re: Iconography of the PuTTY tools

#12

Post by TZubiri »

rzzzt wrote: post #9

This sentence resonates with me: "After a few failed attempts, I realised that Pageant would never get released at all if I waited until I’d drawn the icon I wanted". Many of the projects I'd like to tinker with stop at such self-inflicted roadblocks. My favorite is getting stuck at naming the repository/top-level folder.

Deadlines!

Project Management is always disregarded as waste in hacker circles, but figuring out how to move projects forward is a worthwhile role in projects.

Re: Iconography of the PuTTY tools

#13

Post by rzzzt »

Lammy wrote: post #8

I wonder if the “Agent” hat iconography was inspired by Forté Agent, the most (IMHO) popular Usenet software for Windows, which used a very similar motif: https://archive.org/details/forte-agent-1.6 Love reading this kind of history straight from the creator :)

I'm seeing Carmen Sandiego in it for some reason, but the modern version (from 2014) has a film noir detective in the same spot (the application icon is still the lady in the hat): https://youtu.be/h-_UNm_gycU?t=94

Re: Iconography of the PuTTY tools

#14

Post by bhaak »

acheron wrote: post #2

He says he doesn't remember why he picked blue for the screen, but that was a standard color for screens depicted in Win 3.x and Win95 icons, so I would assume he was just following that.

You can see several examples on this page http://toastytech.com/guis/win31.html that depict an icon with a computer which is almost identical to the one used by putty.

I had to zoom in to verify that it's not the same.

Re: Iconography of the PuTTY tools

#15

Post by HenryBemis »

bhaak wrote: post #14
acheron wrote: post #2

He says he doesn't remember why he picked blue for the screen, but that was a standard color for screens depicted in Win 3.x and Win95 icons, so I would assume he was just following that.

You can see several examples on this page http://toastytech.com/guis/win31.html that depict an icon with a computer which is almost identical to the one used by putty. I had to zoom in to verify that it's not the same.

oh man what a trip down memory lane that was!!! I haven't seen win3.1 for sooooooo long.. thank you for the link and the trip!

Re: Iconography of the PuTTY tools

#16

Post by RadiozRadioz »

> I think that’s probably because the 1990s styling is part of what makes PuTTY what it is – “reassuringly old-fashioned”

This is definitely something that attracts me to PuTTY. There _is_ something reassuring about applications that look the way PuTTY does - maybe the aged look projects stability due to lack of change, maybe it's just the additional cohesion from using OS primitives, I'm not sure. What I am sure of is that I find the opposite to be true for apps with a "modern" aesthetic; the more material design, rounded corners, transitions, low contrast, high padding I see, the more I experience feelings of distrust and skepticism.

I'm not qualified to psychoanalyze it, but I'd hazard that it's not an uncommon interpretation in some user groups, given the pockets of fans of PuTTY-esque design.

Re: Iconography of the PuTTY tools

#17

Post by metalliqaz »

Sharlin wrote: post #11

> I can’t remember why the lightning bolt was yellow. With hindsight that seems the strangest thing about it; cyan would have been a more obvious choice for electricity. Possibly it was just to contrast more with the blue screens of the computers. I had to stop and consider this, because it seemed to me that yellow was "obviously" the correct color. And indeed a few image searches confirmed this: a yellow lightning b…

this also caught my attention. the author also questions why the screens are blue

I think he has just forgotten that in the late 90s, these color choices were entirely obvious and followed the Windows design precedent, which is why he probably didn't think much about it at the time

Re: Iconography of the PuTTY tools

#18

Post by metalliqaz »

rzzzt wrote: post #9

This sentence resonates with me: "After a few failed attempts, I realised that Pageant would never get released at all if I waited until I’d drawn the icon I wanted". Many of the projects I'd like to tinker with stop at such self-inflicted roadblocks. My favorite is getting stuck at naming the repository/top-level folder.

AKA "bike-shedding"

Re: Iconography of the PuTTY tools

#19

Post by gerdesj »

Sharlin wrote: post #11

> I can’t remember why the lightning bolt was yellow. With hindsight that seems the strangest thing about it; cyan would have been a more obvious choice for electricity. Possibly it was just to contrast more with the blue screens of the computers. I had to stop and consider this, because it seemed to me that yellow was "obviously" the correct color. And indeed a few image searches confirmed this: a yellow lightning b…

Simon Tathum is British and I have never knowingly seen a lightning bolt coloured cyan hereabouts. Our "Danger of death" signs are black on yellow (1)

To be fair an image search for lightning does look decidedly cyan on royal, with purple, red and more options.

(1) https://www.hse.gov.uk/electricity/nearelectric.htm#signs

Re: Iconography of the PuTTY tools

#20

Post by ghxst »

rzzzt wrote: post #9

This sentence resonates with me: "After a few failed attempts, I realised that Pageant would never get released at all if I waited until I’d drawn the icon I wanted". Many of the projects I'd like to tinker with stop at such self-inflicted roadblocks. My favorite is getting stuck at naming the repository/top-level folder.

One of the areas LLMs has been most helpful to me personally has to be getting over naming choices lol, whether it's repos, variables or structs for some reason I tend to have a hard time coming up with names :').
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