[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #24864: Genericons!

[WordPress Trac]

#24864: Genericons!
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 Reporter:  georgestephanis     |       Owner:
     Type:  enhancement         |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal              |   Milestone:  3.7
Component:  External Libraries  |     Version:  trunk
 Severity:  normal              |  Resolution:
 Keywords:                      |
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Comment (by celloexpressions):

 I think a lot of concerns have come from the proposal to merge Genericons
 with Dashicons. Since there seems to be consensus that that's a bad idea,
 let's just focus on the issue of whether or not Genericons should be
 bundled.

 The discussion is a bit fragmented, so here are all of the pros/cons
 brought in from the various places discussion has been happening:

 Pros:
 - Canonical version in core
 - Clearer "right way" to load, so less potential for conflicts/duplicate
 loading
 - Themes don't need to bundle and keep track of updates
 - Plugins can use them without the huge overhead of bundling them
 (relative to the size of most plugins). There is currently a huge barrier
 to using them in plugins, which may be why they're frequently seen as a
 theme-specific component
 - We discourage the use of Dashicons in the front end by bundling distinct
 front-end and back-end core icon fonts, thus avoiding issues when we want
 to update Dashicons for admin-specific purposes
 - Better definition and maintenance of scope for Dashicons and Genericons
 - Not in core twice (granted, this isn't significant according to Nacin
 since bundled themes != core)

 Cons:
 - No IE7 support
 - We're bundling yet another thing with core
 - "They're specifically for themes, so why not bundle them in said
 themes?" - [http://irclogs.wordpress.org/chanlog.php?channel=wordpress-
 dev&day=2013-08-13&sort=asc#m663846 Nacin on IRC]
 - Font updates would be tied to core updates, so they could be delayed
 - A theme might want to use an older or newer version than the core
 version (also, corresponding issues with WP versions that a theme
 supports)

 Additional:
 - One alternative is to use a CDN like Google Fonts, although there are
 drawbacks to that approach (this solves the issues of bundling and version
 discrepancies)
 - "To be clear, I have no ideological opposition to Genericons being
 bundled with core, not at all. I just don’t see the benefits." -
 [http://make.wordpress.org/ui/2013/07/29/discussing-genericons-and-
 dashicons-with-ipstenu-and-george/#comment-23325 Joen, on make/UI]
 - Joen's reasoning: "Icon fonts, when you have the process down, are
 pretty easy to create, and will only get easier as time goes by what with
 all the “convert your SVGs to an icon font in one click” services that are
 popping up these days. As much as I’m flattered by a side-project of mine
 being core canonized, I’m worried that we’re solving a non-issue and
 adding bloat in the process. I predict one year from now, creating a
 unique icon font for your theme or plugin is as commonplace as creating
 image sprites." (from the same comment on make/UI)

 Did I miss anything? I'll leave my opinion of these pros/cons separately.

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Ticket URL: <http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/24864#comment:9>
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