[Sigia-l] is there a word

[Richard Wiggins]

You say:

  These are symbols rather than icons

'Splain please?

In school I was taught that a symbol is something that stands for
something much larger.  The flag is a symbol of the country, etc.

Pre-computer-era, the word "icon" was mostly used as a term for a
symbol used in religion; in the computer realm, it seems to mean a
clickable symbolic graphic -- ie it conveys meaning as to what a
particular graphic represents, eg "send email".  An icon is a symbol
whose meaning you can intuitively understand; you (hopefully) know
what will happen when you click on it.

Can you elaborate on the distinction you draw?

Thanks,

/rich