Splinterz,
I just did an hg clone and build on linux (ubuntu). It works fine for me. I love having the sort preserved, thanks for implementing it.
Since you asked for feedback on them, I'll say I'm not thrilled with the new job icons. But that may just be because I was familiar with the old ones and don't know the new ones yet. So please don't take any of these comments as criticism, except in the constructive sense. I'll probably like them more as I get used to them.
The smelt ore and make charcoal icons seem to be the same, and the icon doesn't make sense for charcoal making (and I'm not too sure about it for smelting, I thought it was brewing at first). I'm guessing the charcoal making will be changed at some point, since you did say it's a work in progress.
For some of them I just can't tell what it's supposed to be. Drink and eat seem clear enough. Sleep seems to be a circle with maybe clouds and a sun in it. I'm not sure why that's sleep, the old Z was pretty clear.
I'm guessing "fish" is the tail end of a fish that's been chopped in half (or else the head of a desk lamp). The half fish interpretation would make sense for fish cleaning or dissecting, but a whole fish would more sense for fishing. The desk lamp interpretation makes no sense, so I'm assuming that's completely off base.
I have no clue what "store item in stockpile" is supposed to be. "Pickup equipment" appears to be the same thing as "store item in stockpile", but I still have no idea what it is. Looks kind of like a big wall-mounted alarm bell, like schools used to have, but I doubt that's what it's supposed to be.
"Store item in bin" seems fairly clear, a bin with a green +. I assume "store item in barrel" will be changed to a barrel with a + when you get a chance.
"Pen/Pasture large animal" must be a pasture gate with a green +, but it looks to me more like a computer punch card, except that it's the wrong color. But I suspect that not many people would think of a punched card, so that probably says more about me than it does about the icon.
"Train War Animal" seems to be a kitty. I guess that's generic for all the training tasks, but I don't have many war kitties in my fort. Of course, I guess it could also be a War Giant Tiger, which does make perfect sense. At least I can see that it's an animal, so it must be a train animal task. So it's fine as far as I'm concerned.
The "detail wall" icon seems to be a paintbrush, which kind of makes sense. Trying to do a recognizable hammer and chisel that small would be difficult. The paintbrush does imply artistic imaging, and I can't think of anything better for engraving.
I also note that when I sort by job, "no job" and "on break" are intermingled, but the icons do make sense.
That's everything that my dwarves are doing at the moment. I guess I should work on getting them to do other things so I can tell you what's wrong with other icons as well.
But seriously, I do appreciate the effort. There were many tasks that all had the same icons like a blue triangle in a circle, or a blue dot, so a revamp is certainly a good thing.
Regarding the noble highlighting, i like the concept but I think the colors are too dark. I know I can create custom colors, and I'm trying out some that are much lighter. The trouble I was having is that when I have a dwarf selected, it was getting lost amongst the nobles that were all similar darkness. By having the nobles be lighter shades, the selected dwarf stands out better. It might be good to have more pastels in the non-custom colors.
The happiness icons don't appeal to me too much, either (boy, I'm sure negative today, sorry). It's too hard for my eyes to tell a yellow circle with a smile from a yellow circle with a scowl. The solid colors were much easier for me to distinguish. But you've given the option to use the icons or colors, so people can pick whichever they prefer.
The gradients also don't work too well in the happiness boxes, they're just too small for gradients to work well. The gradients do look good for larger areas, like the dwarf names.
All-in-all, a very nice set of new features, even if I mostly seem to be saying what I don't like. Thanks!