On Sat, 17 Mar 2018 08:56:40 -0000, "Brian Gaff"
wrote:

How come when its going to be good weather we don't get a Green warning.
Also how do you describe colours of the spectrum in between?

Greenery-yallery Grosvenor Gallery.
(WSG I think)

Rod.

In message , Vir Campestris
writes
And if you happen to be red-green colour blind, like about 10% of men,
they're near as dammit identical. Which is why red is _always_ at the
top.

I was thinking that the current weather warning colours can't be ideal
for these people, and wondering why they didn't use blue as one of the
colours instead (and for traffic lights too).
--
John Hall
"Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history
that man can never learn anything from history."
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

"Vir Campestris" wrote in message
news
On 16/03/2018 17:00, Chris Green wrote:
I agree, I hadn't even realised until recently that there were two
different levels called yellow and amber. Traffic light middle light
is called both yellow and amber so one would assume they're the same.

Traditionally railways use yellow, and roads amber, for the name of the
intermediate colour,

Surely red, orange, yellow would be more obvious.

And if you happen to be red-green colour blind, like about 10% of men,
they're near as dammit identical. Which is why red is _always_ at the top.

When I was a boy, the traffic lights in Chester city centre were an older
type, very slender compared to the standard.

They had 'STOP' marked on the lens for the red.

I presume they were early adopters and this was added as a safety measure
for drivers who may not have been familiar with traffic lights.

They came out of service c.87-88 and were replaced with the standard type.

James

"James Heaton" wrote in message
news

"Vir Campestris" wrote in message
news
On 16/03/2018 17:00, Chris Green wrote:
I agree, I hadn't even realised until recently that there were two
different levels called yellow and amber. Traffic light middle light
is called both yellow and amber so one would assume they're the same.

Traditionally railways use yellow, and roads amber, for the name of the
intermediate colour,

Surely red, orange, yellow would be more obvious.

And if you happen to be red-green colour blind, like about 10% of men,
they're near as dammit identical. Which is why red is _always_ at the
top.

When I was a boy, the traffic lights in Chester city centre were an older
type, very slender compared to the standard.

They had 'STOP' marked on the lens for the red.

I presume they were early adopters and this was added as a safety measure
for drivers who may not have been familiar with traffic lights.

They came out of service c.87-88 and were replaced with the standard type.

I remember those. Good idea.

Some countries have horizontal traffic lights, with the red being at the
right (for RHD countries) or left (LHD countries) of the sequence. Canada
even has different shapes for the red, amber and green lights.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._aokibashi.jpg
(Japan)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...fic_signal.JPG
(Canada)

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_light - "Variations" section.

"John Hall" wrote in message
...
In message , Vir Campestris
writes
And if you happen to be red-green colour blind, like about 10% of men,
they're near as dammit identical. Which is why red is _always_ at the top.

I was thinking that the current weather warning colours can't be ideal for
these people, and wondering why they didn't use blue as one of the colours
instead (and for traffic lights too).

Japan used to use blue as the "go" light, and still uses this word to
describe a light which is now the bluest shade of green (or greenest shade
of blue) that they could achieve.

On 17/03/2018 10:55, NY wrote:
"James Heaton" wrote in message
news

"Vir Campestris" wrote in message
news
On 16/03/2018 17:00, Chris Green wrote:
I agree, I hadn't even realised until recently that there were two
different levels called yellow and amber.Â* Traffic light middle light
is called both yellow and amber so one would assume they're the same.

Traditionally railways use yellow, and roads amber, for the name of
the intermediate colour,

Surely red, orange, yellow would be more obvious.

And if you happen to be red-green colour blind, like about 10% of
men, they're near as dammit identical. Which is why red is _always_
at the top.

When I was a boy, the traffic lights in Chester city centre were an
older type, very slender compared to the standard.

They had 'STOP' marked on the lens for the red.

I presume they were early adopters and this was added as a safety
measure for drivers who may not have been familiar with traffic lights.

They came out of service c.87-88 and were replaced with the standard
type.

I remember those. Good idea.

And "no entry" signs had "NO ENTRY" across the white strip. Confusing to
foreigners. Similarly with all the other signs that had lettering on
them, before they were replaced by the so-called continental signs.

--
Max Demian

On 17/03/2018 10:43, John Hall wrote:
In message , Vir Campestris
writes
And if you happen to be red-green colour blind, like about 10% of men,
they're near as dammit identical. Which is why red is _always_ at the
top.

I was thinking that the current weather warning colours can't be ideal
for these people, and wondering why they didn't use blue as one of the
colours instead (and for traffic lights too).

I think the glass lenses /were/ blue for "go" - at least they looked
blue - but looked green because of the yellowy, probably underdriven,
incandescent bulbs. They also had dual filaments so when one blew you
could still see the light /and/ that the bulb needed replacement.

--
Max Demian

On 17/03/2018 10:58, NY wrote:
"John Hall" wrote in message
...
In message , Vir Campestris
writes
And if you happen to be red-green colour blind, like about 10% of
men, they're near as dammit identical. Which is why red is _always_
at the top.

I was thinking that the current weather warning colours can't be ideal
for these people, and wondering why they didn't use blue as one of the
colours instead (and for traffic lights too).

Japan used to use blue as the "go" light, and still uses this word to
describe a light which is now the bluest shade of green (or greenest
shade of blue) that they could achieve.

There's no particular logic to red for stop and green for go. Apparently
they come from the red and green port and starboard lights on aeroplanes
and boats, so could have been the other way round.

--
Max Demian

"Max Demian" wrote in message
o.uk...
And "no entry" signs had "NO ENTRY" across the white strip. Confusing to
foreigners. Similarly with all the other signs that had lettering on them,
before they were replaced by the so-called continental signs.

Depends on how understandable the replacement icons are. I prefer a word,
even if it's in a foreign language, to an icon which I don't recognise.

Many icons and signs are standard: the , and icons on tape recorders,
video recorders, PVRs and MP3 players. I've no problem with those. Likewise
for road signs: there is a finite set and you learn them.

The problem comes with the more esoteric icons to denote washing cycles on
washing machines etc, where the first problem is identifying WTF the icon
portrays, so you can work out what its purpose is. I usually fail at the
"WTF is this icon" stage. Once I've mastered "ah, that icon is *supposed* to
be a ball of wool", then it's trivially easy to say "that means it's the
wool cycle on the washing machine".

In other words, icons should be designed so a) everything that uses the same
icon uses the same drawing of it, and b) every icon is made as recognisable
as possible so you can work out what it is a picture of, as a stepping stone
to being able to work out what the purpose of the icon is.

The best strategy is to use a combination of an icon and a word in a common
language - either the language of the country where the item is being sold
or else a commonly-understood second language such as English.

"Fuel pump", "battery" and "oil can" icons on car dashboards are fine: they
are readily understood as fuel level, ignition/alternator, oil pressure. But
different cars have different colours and conventions for dipped headlights,
front foglights, rear foglights. Some cars have all the front lights facing
one way and all the rear lights the opposite (good) but others have all the
lights on the icons facing the same way, so you have no way of deducing
which light relates to front fog and which to rear.

I remember borrowing my dad's Ford Sierra and after a few miles I was
confronted by a light with an unrecognisable icon which was flashing away at
me, as if you say "this is really really important - do not ignore". I
stopped and looked at the user manual. That's another problem with icons:
you can't list them in alphabetical order in an index. It took me a long
time to find a diagram of the dashboard with each light shown and numbered,
so I could look for "third light from the left" and confirm that the icon in
the book looked vaguely similar (*) to the one on the dashboard. And all it
meant was "low windscreen washer fluid". Very useful to have such a light
(it should be standard) but it shouldn't have flashed as if it was
life-threatening and it should have used an icon that was readily
understandable as being a level of a fluid in conjunction with a windscreen
wiper and/or jet of water.


(*) Back to the point that if you are going to use an obscure icon, at least
make sure that the drawing in the manual is identical to the one on the
dashboard and not a very loose approximation to it.

On Sat, 17 Mar 2018 11:20:13 +0000, Max Demian
wrote:

On 17/03/2018 10:58, NY wrote:
"John Hall" wrote in message
...
In message , Vir Campestris
writes
And if you happen to be red-green colour blind, like about 10% of
men, they're near as dammit identical. Which is why red is _always_
at the top.

I was thinking that the current weather warning colours can't be ideal
for these people, and wondering why they didn't use blue as one of the
colours instead (and for traffic lights too).

Japan used to use blue as the "go" light, and still uses this word to
describe a light which is now the bluest shade of green (or greenest
shade of blue) that they could achieve.

There's no particular logic to red for stop and green for go. Apparently
they come from the red and green port and starboard lights on aeroplanes
and boats, so could have been the other way round.

Are you sure? I thought red was traditionally associated with danger.
Did a red flag not need to be carried in front of motor vehicles long
before traffic lights were introduced?