![\"club_sandwich\"](\"http:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/club_sandwich.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
You’ve seen it, I know you have. It’s an icon. It could indicate a hidden menu drawer, pop-out thingie, or it could be the place you click the mouse to drag a shutter. The usage is inconsistent and so is the name. What is it? The icon is actually one of the most ancient of computer icons, having been born on the original GUI computer, the Xerox Star.<\/p>\n Back then, the graphic displays were very low resolution. The hamburger icon’s designer, Norm Cox, wanted something that was simple to render but conveyed the idea of a list of commands: Click the icon to display a menu. And that’s how the hamburger is used today.<\/p>\n In both the Chrome and Firefox web browsers, you click the hamburger icon in the upper right corner of the window to view a pop-up menu.<\/p>\n For various mobile apps, the hamburger also works to pop-up (or slide-in) a menu. Its purpose is to show you a list of items, which is what the three lines represent — not two buns and a patty.<\/p>\n I don’t think any less of a software developer to use the hamburger icon. It’s traditional, well-recognized, and as long as they don’t change its purpose, it works!<\/p>\n Then there’s Microsoft . . .<\/p>\n See how I ended that sentence? The three dots are called an ellipsis<\/em>. That’s a Greek word meaning “to leave out.” In grammar, you use ellipses (plural) to reference text cut out or omitted for brevity. I use an ellipsis at the end of a sentence to show that I could write more, yet decorum prevents me from wandering off.<\/p>\n In Windows 10, Microsoft uses an ellipsis icon instead of the hamburger to indicate the presence of a menu. In Figure 1, you see the new Microsoft Edge browser, with the ellipsis clicked to show the menu.<\/p>\n Figure 1. Microsoft doesn’t like hamburgers.<\/p><\/div>\n Ellipses appear all over Windows 10, as do other icons that aren’t really established or the norm. That’s okay; every software ecosystem has its own designs and rules. Providing that these items are consistent between all the programs and apps, it works. So there’s really no need for all software to adopt the same icons — unless you want to make things easier on the user. And that’s never been a concern of the software industry.<\/p>\n So enjoy your hamburgers wherever you can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This new icon is making the rounds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7759"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7769,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7759\/revisions\/7769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nI’ve seen this icon called the hamburger<\/em>. Yeah, I could buy that. And it’s a clever description. But the more I stared at it, the more it looks like a club sandwich and not a hamburger. Still, it’s known as the hamburger.<\/p>\n![\"Figure](\"http:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/0921-figure1.png\")