Comment 0 for bug 658616

Binary package hint: ubuntu-mono

I maintain a GTK app used in-house at my university. It's a graphical
editor for the input to a scientific model. (You can see a screenshot
at http://amcg.ese.ic.ac.uk/index.php?title=Spud .) In the model options,
some things are optional, and can be activated by clicking a plus icon
on the right hand side of the TreeView; such things can then be deactivated
by clicking on a minus icon in the TreeView. (You can see both the pluses
and minuses in the screenshot.)

These icons are represented by a gtk.STOCK_ADD and a gtk.STOCK_REMOVE. But
sometime between lucid and maverick, the gtk.STOCK_REMOVE icon used in the
Ambiance theme got changed from a minus sign to a red circle with a bar through
it, which to me has a meaning much closer to "cancel" or "danger" than
"remove". As a visual metaphor for removing elements of the input to the model,
it no longer makes sense. My users who have just updated to maverick have been
a bit confused ...

So, is the right thing to do:

a) to bundle my own plus and minus icons, breaking consistency with the rest of
the desktop, or

b) should the gtk.STOCK_REMOVE icon to be changed back to
the minus sign it was in lucid? Is there a formal description of what the STOCK_REMOVE
should signify anywhere? I couldn't find it through google.

Was there any discussion of the change on a mailing list anywhere? I googled
for it but couldn't find any.

Like I said, the icon was perfectly appropriate in lucid, but it changed in maverick.

Any advice gratefully received!

Thanks,

Patrick