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Steve Troughton-SmithIcon Composer looked a little different in 2001
jack@stroughtonsmith nostalgic!
Gene Goykhman@stroughtonsmith Huge (48x48)
Brian Webster@stroughtonsmith 128 pixels???? OMG huge!!!!11 😱
Ahnaf Mahmud@stroughtonsmith IconComposer != Icon Composer
Alexander Käßner@stroughtonsmith What was the “Hit Mask” used for? 🤔
Uli Kusterer (Not a kitteh)@alexkaessner @stroughtonsmith Define which parts are clickable (as opposed to drawing opaque). E.g. in the Internet Explorer "e" you'd usually make the hit mask a circle, so that people who click in the center don't end up in the "hole" of the "e" (the "counter"?).
@uliwitness @stroughtonsmith Thanks for the explanation! 🙏
Sounds a bit overkill for an icon. Why would you want to make it harder to click/open your app? Guess that’s why it doesn’t exist anymore 😅
@alexkaessner @uliwitness I expect it was more about being able to have lots of transparency in your icon, and still have it be clickable. Say a big 'O' for Opera, you want the hole in the middle to not miss a click
@stroughtonsmith @uliwitness That makes sense, so by default the full transparent areas didn’t register clicks, but you could manually force it. Not the other way around.
Still a weird choice in the first place, to make transparent areas not registering clicks. At least for an icon.
@alexkaessner @uliwitness we have the technology now to do that kind of hit masking automatically! Maybe not 30 years ago 😄
Nathan Manceaux-Panot@stroughtonsmith @alexkaessner @uliwitness macOS *is* doing hit testing automatically, to this day! In icon view in the Finder, try clicking an icon with a fancy shape: the 0-opacity parts are not clickable.
I think that’s pretty much an anti-feature, but it must have been very cool in 2001.
Michel Fortin@Cykelero @stroughtonsmith @alexkaessner @uliwitness The hit mask was a cool thing in 1984 with System 1. Those masks also acted as the 1-bit alpha channel of the icon at that time.
I don't think they are a UI mistake. Clicking outside an icon is expected to deselect whatever is currently selected, so if you click somewhere that looks outside an icon it should do that. Perhaps it's silly when there's a hole in the middle, but I think it makes sense for the outer areas to define the shape.
@michelf @stroughtonsmith @alexkaessner @uliwitness Ohh, didn't know it went that far back!
I hadn't thought of the need to deselect, that's a good point. I'd argue it's unnecessary nowadays, with Mac OS X's usually ample spacing between icons, but that makes total sense.
I hadn't thought of the need to deselect, that's a good point. I'd argue it's unnecessary nowadays, with Mac OS X's usually ample spacing between icons, but that makes total sense.
@Cykelero @michelf @stroughtonsmith @uliwitness Oh I see, it indeed still works in Finders icon view. Though, it does ignore the transparent areas for deselect. The auto mask only works for *select* hit testing 👀
The Dock also ignores the transparent areas. Which IMO is a good thing! Would be quite annoying otherwise.
In fact, I don't see a good reason you want that at all. I mean who is stacking icons on top of other interactive elements anyways? 🤔
@Cykelero @stroughtonsmith @alexkaessner @uliwitness It was always "unnecessary" in the sense that there was always enough space around. Unless you manually arrange your icons too close.
I think in general there's a usability gain in having "what you click on is what you get" without having to consider invisible hit rects.
@michelf @Cykelero @stroughtonsmith @alexkaessner It also gets important when you drag out a selection rect, where you might start out close to an icon but not want to select that particular one, you *want* to click the background.
@alexkaessner @stroughtonsmith Well, you want your background color to show through the transparent areas, and if two icons overlap in icon view mode (where users can freely place icons wherever they want, even overlapping), you want clicks on the icon in the back that shows through to bring that icon forward, not end up on the wrong icon. Except in the middle, where it's more likely the frontmost icon was intended.
@alexkaessner @stroughtonsmith No, it's the reverse, it makes it easier. Because otherwise icons that have big transparent areas in the middle are harder to click. With a click mask, you can fill in the transparent areas in the middle, so your mouse can't "fall through the hole".