The "Invert" icon

This is a microscopic nit-picking.

Is the "X" icon the right icon for this?

In Logic we add a line over the word to represent the inverted operation.

Another option is to actually show the line inverted (white font over a darker background).

The "X" just seems more like in the "delete"/"cancel" direction.

I'm not sure about the line above... Remember C2 is supposed to appeal to a non-programmer audience as well. Surely people could get confused!

And I think inverting would look a bit strange.

But I agree that the cross is possibly not the BEST possible icon... Hmm...

The invert icon is really complicated. Although I'm not sure inverting the colors or adding a line over the words would be easily understandable.

An ideal solution would be to change the text of conditions to the inverse sentence like "Is overlapping Object" by "Is not overlapping Object", or for comparison conditions change it to the opposite operation (x<y to x>=y). But from what I know about the internal structure of plugins I'm not sure this would be feasible. So what is left is convey it with the icon.

The "invert" operation in C2 are thighly related to concepts like inverse, opposite and negation. They are all very abstract and because of this are really hard to represent.

The previous icon for invert was the 'not equal' symbol. It was a bit unrelated to the previous concepts, and could be potentially conflicting with the comparison operators. So I tried to think in other alternatives.

Looking for existing conventions I remembered the logical NOT gate symbol, that is used for logic inverse operations. At first it seemed like a good alternative, but it's too distant from the repertory of common people. It's meaningless to most people, and is not even possible to deduct what it should mean just by looking.

I found more known representations within the negation concept. From this I found two alternatives: the prohibition symbol, and the cross that represents negation. The prohibition symbol seemed more fitting for disabling events, so I choose the negation cross for invert. It also happens to be used in the equivalent "invert" of Multimedia Fusion.

Within the options I found the current icon seemed the best pick.

<img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7871870/Scirra%20graphics/icons/invert-icons-01.png" border="0" />

I thought in some other alternatives that used "black VS white", but they all conveyed more the concept of "contrast" than inverse. There's also Yin Yang symbol, but I don't know how much people grasp it's concept.

If you have other good suggestions I would be happy to know.

In programming the logical "NOT" operator is often the exclamation mark, so

if (x)

would turn in to

if (!x)

for "if not x". However again I think this is too unusual for C2, since I think it looks too much like "exclamation" or "error"... e.g.

! Is overlapping

also since we can use icons we don't have to limit ourselves to typable characters. So I think the red cross or old "not equals" sign is OK.

I was going to suggest the exclamation mark as well. You could say it could confuse the non-programmer crowd that uses C2, but this reminds me of the discussion that happened quite some time ago, about arrays and other stuff being 1-index in CC, and it was done that way to help those users understand the program better

I find the "not equal" icon much better than a red cross one.

One can improve it by placing it in a circle. The inner space of the circle can be inverted to better distinquish it from the "not equal".

Wouldn't an icon like the "Recycle" symbol do ?

<img src="http://dl.lib.brown.edu:8083/ops/apps/xforms-bookcast/images/recycle-green.png" border="0" />

Maybe with arrows less intricated, but the idea of "inverting" the logical sense kinda pops out of such an icon.

Maybe that's cultural/age related, I don't know. It sort of relates to Yin Yang's proposal I guess. Arrows are maybe more "techys".

For the "words crossed when inverted" I think it could cause some confusion with "disabled events".

In C2 at the moment, when conditions/code are stroke it means they are not executed. Not exactly the meaning of invert either.

Difficult/tricky topic indeed, I'm glad to see the community discuss it.

How about a small icon of an upside-down umbrella?

The background and umbrella inside can be inverted to further explain this. If half of it is inverted than it could be a nice self-explained icon. Much better than an "x".

Even if this idea fails to convince I still think the previous "Not equal" direction is better than the current red-cross.

I thought the "not equal" icon was just fine. Remembering that the main target audience for the software are non-programmers/potentially-non-technical, they can simply be taught that whatever icon is chosen represents inversion as long as it isn't easily confused with anything else.

I would agree that a 'not equal' sign in the graphical format of the current cross would be better at the moment...

Hmm. I wonder what new users think?

I may try something along the lines of what Kyatric suggested and some other ideas. If it ends up not good enough and most people still prefer, I can adapt the 'not equal' icon to fit the new style.

I did some more thinking and ended up with some new ideas:

Invert Icon Alternatives

• negative icon, outlined an filled;
• an arrow inverting direction;
• the 'not equal' symbol;
• simply 'Not' words;
• Yin Yang;
• thumb-down/"negative".

I found the thumb-down a potentially universal and simple concept, but I had a hard time trying to make it readable at 16px. That's why I made so many alternatives of it, but don't know which one works best.

So I would like to know what people think fits better as the invert icon, so please share your opinions and arguments.

Great work!

I like the "not" direction and the not-equal direction.

I think the best one would be a not equal sign but inverted (in white) inside a small red circle.

Well the icon only appears after the user himself inverts the condition so naturally you will automatically associate the two. As such, it can be a freaking triangle and still make sense; the user doesn't have to look at the icon and figure out what it means. You're looking too into it O_o;

Well the icon only appears after the user himself inverts the condition so naturally you will automatically associate the two. As such, it can be a freaking triangle and still make sense; the user doesn't have to look at the icon and figure out what it means. You're looking too into it O_o;It's always good and advisable to make icons understandable at a glance, that's what helps make an interface intuitive. Since often new users open a capx example and can't figure what those inverted events mean, it's nice to make it as clear as possible.