21 ms·

"Colorways"? Like what everyone else calls "themes"? Yeah, you don't actually need to make up your own word for that. That, plus the fact that this is the lead

"Colorways"? Like what everyone else calls "themes"? Yeah, you don't actually need to make up your own word for that. That, plus the fact that this is the lead bullet point for their new release makes me think "way too many marketers, not enough engineers".

detritus 5y ago
'Colourways' is a fairly standard term to describe different colour options on various different product types. Mozilla haven't made this up for themselves. 'Theme', to me, suggests ye olde browser customisation wherein you could have animated gifs of Homer Simpson barking D'OH as your 'Home' button, &c. I'm assuming that's not the case here?
- 542458 5y ago
  Yeah, these are “colorways” in the manufacturing sense - they don’t change layout, patterns, etc, only swap out what colors are present. I’ve tried them out, they’re nice. You pick a (curated) colour, and choose nether you want a dark/light/mixed theme based on it. It’s not the most complex feature ever, but it’s well done.
- account42 5y ago
  It's a completely nonstandard term to descripe color schemes for UI themes. That the word is used in an unrelated industry is irrelevant.
  - detritus 5y ago
    For you, perhaps - I've come across it a lot in similar contexts and all the people who upvoted my comment seem to disagree with you too. I'm not saying I like it necessarily, but it's quite clear what it means in context and language does have a tendency to evolve despite our best efforts. shrug
- Turing_Machine 5y ago
  > 'Colourways' is a fairly standard term Not in software it isn't. It appears to be a marketing term, just as I said.
xattt 5y ago
> way too many marketers The writing was on the wall when they started publishing different white papers about different UI tweaks almost a decade ago. Does anyone remember that video of a collaborative web browsing session? It’s like train fans drawing fantasy subway maps: “Now that the colour for the new subway line is settled, let’s hire a construction firm to figure out how we can get this thing built”.

detritus 5y ago

'Colourways' is a fairly standard term to describe different colour options on various different product types. Mozilla haven't made this up for themselves. 'Theme', to me, suggests ye olde browser customisation wherein you could have animated gifs of Homer Simpson barking D'OH as your 'Home' button, &c. I'm assuming that's not the case here?

542458 5y ago
Yeah, these are “colorways” in the manufacturing sense - they don’t change layout, patterns, etc, only swap out what colors are present. I’ve tried them out, they’re nice. You pick a (curated) colour, and choose nether you want a dark/light/mixed theme based on it. It’s not the most complex feature ever, but it’s well done.
account42 5y ago
It's a completely nonstandard term to descripe color schemes for UI themes. That the word is used in an unrelated industry is irrelevant.
- detritus 5y ago
  For you, perhaps - I've come across it a lot in similar contexts and all the people who upvoted my comment seem to disagree with you too. I'm not saying I like it necessarily, but it's quite clear what it means in context and language does have a tendency to evolve despite our best efforts. shrug
Turing_Machine 5y ago
> 'Colourways' is a fairly standard term Not in software it isn't. It appears to be a marketing term, just as I said.

xattt 5y ago

> way too many marketers The writing was on the wall when they started publishing different white papers about different UI tweaks almost a decade ago. Does anyone remember that video of a collaborative web browsing session? It’s like train fans drawing fantasy subway maps: “Now that the colour for the new subway line is settled, let’s hire a construction firm to figure out how we can get this thing built”.