Editing Icon (computing) (section)

== Related visual tools ==

Other graphical devices used in the computer user interface fulfill GUI functions on the system similar to the computer icons described above. However each of these related graphical devices differs in one way or another from the standard computer icon.

=== Windows ===

The graphical windows on the computer screen share some of the visual and functional characteristics of the computer icon. Windows can be minimized to an icon format to serve as a hyperlink to the window itself. Multiple windows can be open and even overlapping on the screen. However where the icon provides a single button to initiate some function, the principal function of the window is a workspace, which can be minimized to an icon hyperlink when not in use.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.linfo.org/window.html|title=GUI windows: definition, advantages, origin and future.|website=www.linfo.org}}</ref>

=== Control widgets ===

Over time, certain [[GUI widget]]s have gradually appeared which are useful in many contexts.  These are graphical controls which are used across computer systems and can be intuitively manipulated by the user even in a new context because the user recognises them from having seen them in a more familiar context. Examples of these control widgets are scroll bars, sliders, listboxes and buttons used in many programs. Using these widgets, a user is able to define and manipulate the data and the display for the software program they are working with. The first set of computer widgets was originally developed for the Xerox Alto. Now they are commonly bundled in widget toolkits and distributed as part of a development package. These control widgets are standardized pictograms used in the graphical interface, they offer an expanded set of user functionalities beyond the hyperlink function of computer icons.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taouu/html/ch02s05.html|title=The first GUIs|website=www.catb.org}}</ref>

=== Emoticons ===

Another GUI icon is exemplified by the [[smiley]] face, a pictogram embedded in a [[text message]]. The smiley, and by extension other [[emoticon]]s, are used in computer text to convey information in a non-verbal binary shorthand, frequently involving the emotional context of the message. These icons were first developed for computers in the 1980s as a response to the limited storage and transmission bandwidth used in electronic messaging. Since then they have become both abundant and more sophisticated in their keyboard representations of varying emotions. They have developed from keyboard character combinations into real icons. They are widely used in all forms of electronic communications, always with the goal of adding context to the verbal content of the message. In adding an emotional overlay to the text, they have also enabled electronic messages to substitute for and frequently supplant voice-to-voice messaging.

These emoticons are very different from the icon hyperlinks described above. They do not serve as links, and are not part of any system function or computer software. Instead they are part of the communication language of users across systems. For these computer icons, customization and modifications are not only possible but in fact expected of the user.<ref>Scott McCloud (1994). "The Vocabulary of Comics", pg 195 ff. in Handa, ''Visual Rhetoric in a Digital World''. Bedford / St. Martins, Boston.</ref>

=== Hyperlinks ===

A text hyperlink performs much the same function as the functional computer icon: it provides a direct link to some function or data available on the system. Although they can be customized, these text hyperlinks generally share a standardized recognizable format, blue text with underlining. Hyperlinks differ from functional computer icons in that they are normally embedded in text, whereas icons are displayed as stand-alone on the screen real estate. They are also displayed in text, either as the link itself or a friendly name, whereas icons are defined as being primarily non-textual.