Scratch – Random Mahjong

Continuing my incremental NetNewsWire theme build. Version 15 (Scratch – Random Webding) added a little delight to NetNewsWire’s system message view. Sadly though, turns out that Webdings is not available on iOS by default.

Apple Symbols

Oops! By actually checking, I discovered another much more extensive symbols font – Apple Symbols, does come installed on both MacOS and iOS. This version of Scratch substitutes the charming old Webdings with something iOS NetNewsWire folks can enjoy too.

I spent ages clicking through the glyphs in Font Book. Long enough to decide it would be silly and disjointed to include all of them like I did the Webdings. Besides, I can’t include all the symbols, only those that have a corresponding Unicode code. Unlike SF Symbols, Apple Symbols has loads of those.

Icon themes

I’ve relieved myself from the onerous task of choosing a representative set from all the glyphs. By instead selecting a smaller themed selection, I can change it up in subsequent versions of the theme.

I don’t have to choose the icon set, just the initial set to use until I get tired of it.

Mahjong tiles

There is a set of Mahjong tile glyphs that caught my eye browsing the glyphs. I’m using them as the first set.

The closest I’ve played Mahjong is likely a variety of RummyCue with tiles. I have no particular cultural connection to Mahjong, but having played loads of card games I can see the shared heritage.

Anyway, the tiles look nice even if, like me, you don’t “read” them.

On my Mac in Sequoia, where the CSS random() selection doesn’t work, I get just the bird (MAHJONG TILE ONE OF BAMBOOS):

🀐

I can guarantee no birds were harmed in the creation of this NetNewsWire theme.

VoiceOver fix

To prevent VoiceOver from potentially reading all the inserted icons, I’ve tweaked the CSS to substitute an empty alt in place of the content:

My apologies to anyone who might have been confronted with a reading of the version 15 full Webding list.

This is a usability fix. Arguably the accessibility fix here would be to provide an alt that named or described the visible glyph. I’ll consider doing so as a JavaScript enhancement in future.

Empty divs now considered empty

Speaking of JavaScript, Third time lucky empty post test update. I’ve adjusted the code that checks if an article is empty (before substituting the title).

Install this version

To enable a quick switch between different versions of this theme I’ve generated a zip of each version – incorporating the version number in the name:

• Install: Scratch v16
• Download: Scratch_v16.nnwtheme.zip

Install latest version

Get the latest (or other previous) versions on the Scratch project page.