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>In general I agree about the standards and good taste in choosing the colors, but I do not agree that the implementation of the standards should restrict the options for the developer.
>In the real world we have colored buttons and blinking warning lights everywhere. No wonder that the clients ask for them in the applications and are not happy when you tell them that you cannot have it. If the STOP button in the real world almost always is red, it just does not make sense for the clients. Standards here should be more of a guidelines or default settings, then physical restrictions. Why button should be any more different in it's backcolor setting then Label? Just because some group in MS thinks so? If we look at Real Player for example, do we see there Windows standards in the buttons? And is it a bad design? Isn't using the pictures in the buttons a way to avoid this standard forced to us by MS?
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>Nick

Nick,

Just because people are used to things in the real world, does not mean that it should be duplicated here on the computer. Go up to the Interface Hall of Shame (http://www.iarchitect.com/shame.htm) and read about Apple's QuickTime player as an example.

As for RealPlayer...I would be more comfortable with it if it followed Window's UI standards. I've fumbled around it, trying to find the correct control.