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Do you agree that Lazarus needs modern graphics?

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nsunny:
Hello everyone,

I had come across the Lazarus project in 2009. Lazarus was suggested to me by a user from a forum for programing.

At first glance I thought of Lazarus as an outdated IDE, because nobody I know codes using it. But as I gone through the Lazarus Tutorial I found it as good as any other IDEs out there, even better than some. As I gradually got used to the form designer, it wowed me. It is not less than any commercial IDE. I have heard that it is better than Delphi in many ways.

So I wonder, why did I have the impression that Lazarus is an outdated IDE? There were these reasons (for me) for the first time:

* Website (It hasn't changed a bit when I first saw it in 2009)
* Splash screen
* Windows all over my desktop
I think you will agree that a design is more than just a design. A design controls the way we think. That's why multinational companies do research and change their design, layout etc. And sometimes if they go too far they change their logo, symbol, mascot etc.

If we see some other open source projects, they have also changed their graphics. (For example, Gimp has changed their splash screen, Ubuntu changes their graphics [symbol is another thing] with every release. Recently Ubuntu 13.04 got the icons undated by a university department, I heard.)

A modern image can help Lazarus:

* Lead a person to think positive about Lazarus
* Lead a person to think it has modern features
* When similar graphics would be used, it will give the user an uniform experience with Lazarus
* The user will be more confident in the performance in the IDE
* There are lots of other reasons...
My question is to all of you forum members:

Do you think that the current Lazarus graphics (in the website, setup image, splash screen or in any other form) should be updated?
Do you think that modern images / graphics / design (cosmetic changes) should be adapted to make it feel more up to date?
Do you think that new graphics could interest more users to use Lazarus?
* I want to respect the current logos, the cheetah as a symbol. But can they be presented in other poses or angle or perspective to improve the design?

(May be you know that I have been working on a website prototype. I don't want you to think that I am supporting my design through this thread. I am just asking that should we still have the old graphics, or should we move on to new ones, retaining/respecting the current symbols/logos to have an up to date impression?)

jwdietrich:
Your questions are too general to be answered.

Of course, the Lazarus project will benefit from an adequate design that also conveys the information to be up-to-date. But the design should also be tasteful, modest, elegant and expressing some continuity.

To combine both messages is not an easy task. That is the reason why design is a job for a living.

BigChimp:
@jwdietrich:
In the absence of professional designers, we have to make do with what we have, I think.


--- Quote ---Do you think that the current Lazarus graphics (in the website, setup image, splash screen or in any other form) should be updated?

--- End quote ---
No, I don't think they do.

I'm not against a change, but honestly I don't see the point - I do not think that changing the logo/graphics will cause more people to take an interest in Lazarus.

A website redesign - especially a clean, attractive main page - on the other hand, would help a lot.

Having that design blend in with the wiki would be a definite plus as well. The bugtracker... well, I really don't care that much about the layout as long as I can work with it quickly.


--- Quote ---Do you think that modern images / graphics / design should be adapted to make it feel more up to date?

--- End quote ---
What is "it"? If you mean the website: sure.
If you mean the Lazarus IDE: no.

The "many windows" thing you saw is at least partly due because of incomplete docking support. All it takes is people to dive into the source code and start fixing things. If people are really interested in that, they'll do so. If they're not, they'll talk about it [1] ;)

[1] Not directed at you, nsunny, you're already contributing with your design etc, but it's a general phenomenon on the forum/mailing lists.


--- Quote ---Do you think that new graphics could interest more users to use Lazarus?

--- End quote ---
Not really, no.

exdatis:
In my opinion, no!

chrnobel:
Also IMO, the answers are: no, no, no.

Firstly it makes no difference in the number of active users to make changes for changes sake - it is more important that there continuous progress, and to avoid to many compatibility issues from version to version - there is nothing more annoying than facing a lot of broken dependencies when opening an older project.

Secondly, what is "modern"?

Is it "modern" when Microsoft create their horrible counterintuitive "modern UI"?

And in Linux the docking problem is negligible, eg. I do have 8 desktops, so for every instance of Lazarus I am having open, I use a separate desktop - and other desktops for browser, SQL admin, mail, etc.

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