As a relative newbie to Swift and Xcode, I've been directed to Apple Documentation. When I open the documentation, the left column lists links to various frameworks, services, tools, etc. and each link is prefixed by an icon. The most common icon at the top level is a rounded square enclosing four different colored circles arranged in a square.
Clicking on the reveal triangle of the Swift link near the top of that column displays a next level of links, each link prefixed by another icon of three common types: a document icon, an icon showing several lines (code?) and a square containing the letter "S".
Entering a search argument typically displays a pop-down menu with several entries, each prefixed by a similar icon. For my purposes, most of these are the letters "S", "C", "E", or "Pr", or the lines icon.
I can work out the meaning of some of the more obvious of these icons, such as that S = Structure, C = Class, E = Enumeration and Pr = Protocol but why do I have to work this out?
If the purpose of the icons is to help me work my way through the documentation, wouldn't it help to have an explanation easily available to a newbie like me to let me know what all of them are and what each one means?
I've done several searches (in Xcode Help, in the documentation, as a Google search) to try to find the answer to that question and have come up empty.
A search in this forum for "Apple Documentation icons" is rendered nearly useless because it searches for "document icon" instead. I'm not certain what person or AI decided that "document" meant the same thing as "documentation" but the search was useless for my purposes. Yeah, they're related but "document icon" completely overwhelms the results for my intended search.
Can anyone point me to an explanation of these icons? Please don't answer with a helpful explanation of seven or eight of the most common of these icons. I'm looking for an exhaustive list with definitions. If such a list doesn't exist, then why are the icons being used in the first place, as decoration?
Thank you in advance for at least reading my diatribe.
Clicking on the reveal triangle of the Swift link near the top of that column displays a next level of links, each link prefixed by another icon of three common types: a document icon, an icon showing several lines (code?) and a square containing the letter "S".
Entering a search argument typically displays a pop-down menu with several entries, each prefixed by a similar icon. For my purposes, most of these are the letters "S", "C", "E", or "Pr", or the lines icon.
I can work out the meaning of some of the more obvious of these icons, such as that S = Structure, C = Class, E = Enumeration and Pr = Protocol but why do I have to work this out?
If the purpose of the icons is to help me work my way through the documentation, wouldn't it help to have an explanation easily available to a newbie like me to let me know what all of them are and what each one means?
I've done several searches (in Xcode Help, in the documentation, as a Google search) to try to find the answer to that question and have come up empty.
A search in this forum for "Apple Documentation icons" is rendered nearly useless because it searches for "document icon" instead. I'm not certain what person or AI decided that "document" meant the same thing as "documentation" but the search was useless for my purposes. Yeah, they're related but "document icon" completely overwhelms the results for my intended search.
Can anyone point me to an explanation of these icons? Please don't answer with a helpful explanation of seven or eight of the most common of these icons. I'm looking for an exhaustive list with definitions. If such a list doesn't exist, then why are the icons being used in the first place, as decoration?
Thank you in advance for at least reading my diatribe.
I suspect you've worked them out, but for future ref.:
Right click on a document while viewing, then choose 'Developer Document Help' for tips on navigating, but don't expect icon explanations there.
Might be a good enhancement request via the feedback/bug link below. Be sure to add your report #(s) to your thread for reference.
BTW, I believe Apple is still using Oxygen to generate those documents.
Ken
C - Class
E - Enumeration
M - (Instance) Method
P - (Instance) Property
Pr - Protocol
S - Structure
T - Type (Alias)
V - (Global) Variable
Box with lines - Chapter/section top
Paper w/earmarked corner - Article
Box with 4 dots - Framework/API topic top
► ...use/tap to toggle/expand content
Right click on a document while viewing, then choose 'Developer Document Help' for tips on navigating, but don't expect icon explanations there.
Maybe they figure if you're in that deep, you're smart enuf to suss the visuals on your own ;) Seems like a mouseOver tooltip candidate, at the least.why do I have to work this out?
Might be a good enhancement request via the feedback/bug link below. Be sure to add your report #(s) to your thread for reference.
BTW, I believe Apple is still using Oxygen to generate those documents.
Ken
