[Pythonmac-SIG] Download page on www.python.org now updated

[Bill Janssen]

Ron Oussoren writes:
> The 16 ton icon stays until someone brings a better alternative.

W. R. Wing writes:
> I LIKE the python squeezing the apple.  The 16 ton icon is not only 
> amateurish, it is so indirect an "in" joke as to be inscrutable to 
> anyone coming new to the party.

I agree with Wing.  So there *is* a better alternative, and there's
now a MacPython.icns file at
http://bill.janssen.org/mac/MacPython.icns with the snake wrapped
around the Apple.  Feel free to use it where it fits.

But Ron objects:
> The page looks fine, but it might be better to remove the icon or
> replace it by the current MacPython icon (the 16 ton weight).

The 16-ton weight screams "done by amateurs for a toy computer".  The
sooner it's stamped out, the better.

And further explains:
> It's not that I don't like the snake, but some people claim a
> lifelike snake will scare some (potential) users and furthermore the
> snake-icon isn't actually used by MacPython (yet?).

As we know, some people will claim anything.  The snake/apple icon is
all over the MacPython pages, that's where it comes from.  The new
Python web site has finally switched to a snake-based logo, as well.

As for scaring users:  I feel sympathy for folks who have pathological
fears of almost anything, including drawings of snakes.  I think,
though, it might be kinder to repel those folks immediately, rather
than helping them overcome their incipient nausea at the very idea of
a language called "Python", and getting to use it.  Such use might
cause a nasty amount of subconscious angst, expressed in -- who knows
-- continuous nightmares?  Random acts of violence?

Surely better to act up front!  More snakes on the web page!

Bill