Icons (Q987490)

Icon is the authors' acronym for ``identity component oplax natural''. Bicategories, lax functors and icons are the objects, morphisms, 2-cells for a (strict) 2-category. In higher category theory we have learnt that it is foolhardy to claim that one particular choice of concept should be used to the exclusion of others. While being honest about some of their shortcomings, the author gives reasons why icons are the useful 2-cells in many contexts. An interesting motivation for them, at least between pseudo functors (homomorphisms of bicategories), is that they are the costrict 2-cells in the sesquicategory whose 2-cells are all oplax natural transformations.