It can also be thought of as a pun -- when you want to "exit" an application, you "X it".
X to close
21–30 of 204 posts
Re: X to close
#22http://toastytech.com/guis/ns08.html NextStep 0.8, '88 vintage.
Good find. That's clearly an [X] in the upper-right corner.
Re: X to close
#23As an Atari ST user from 1985 to roughly 1993, I wasn't expecting the author would actually mention GEM/TOS. I was pleasantly surprised when I scrolled down and, lo, there it is. That said, since the "X" in this case is white on a black background, I always interpreted the icon as four arrows pointing inward to indicate a shrinking/disappearing motion. In fact, when you closed a window, GEM would play an (inelegant)…
I don't think there is much relevance in the Japanese argument. One funny detail is that Sony actually inverted in their games the meaning of Round and X for western markets -> making X act as "validate" and Round as "Back/Cancel", the exact opposite of what they do in Japan.
As for "X being a true icon", I don't know. For me, it could stand as well as an abbreviation for "eXit" -> X.
The AmigaOS Workbench used (and still uses) a dot instead of a X. It's just a matter of conventions.
Re: X to close
#24They mention X and O on the PS controller but usually in games O is for no and X is for yes. Completely opposite of the batsu/maru, incorrent/correct they were discussing.
In Japanese variants, he is correct. When Sony westernized the playstation controller, the O and X functionality was flipped.
Sony is yet to comment on the reasons why.
Re: X to close
#25Re: X to close
#26They mention X and O on the PS controller but usually in games O is for no and X is for yes. Completely opposite of the batsu/maru, incorrent/correct they were discussing.
In Japan they're sometimes switched. That is to say, I've worked on PS3 games where the US SKU had X=accept, O=back but the Japanese SKU had X=back, O=accept. [edited]
In Japan the actual convention is X=cancel/back and O=select/validate. Most japanese games follow that, because the Batsu/Maru meaning is obvious in Japanese with these symbols.
Re: X to close
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, that's different. You are talking about an "x" that you type in, as opposed to an "x" you can click on. To answer your question, "x" (short for eXit) was available in vi from the beginning: ZZ Exits the editor. (Same as :xCR) Source: Bill Joy's "An Introduction to Display Editing with Vi" http://www.verticalsysadmin.com/vi/vi_editor__bill_joy.pdf
Yes, it's different, but the article was trying argue that since "X" wasn't used in that context at the time it was introduced as a GUI element, the GUI element couldn't possibly be referencing the letter as a way of closing a program. While I agree that it's unlikely that the GUI "X" refers to a letter "X", that's not a valid argument for that position. Edit: and thanks for the vi ref.
Understood, and you're welcome!
Re: X to close
#28As an Atari ST user from 1985 to roughly 1993, I wasn't expecting the author would actually mention GEM/TOS. I was pleasantly surprised when I scrolled down and, lo, there it is. That said, since the "X" in this case is white on a black background, I always interpreted the icon as four arrows pointing inward to indicate a shrinking/disappearing motion. In fact, when you closed a window, GEM would play an (inelegant)…
I always saw it as an X, and when I used to tutor people on the ST (it was very popular where I grew up) I would refer to it as an X. It's more than possible that someone who used the ST, who saw it at as X, then suggested using an X as the close icon on Windows 95.
So the Japanese 'connection' may not be valid, but the notion that someone saw the GEMTOS symbol as an X and then influenced Windows 95 is not that far-fetched...
I was also really surprised (and glad) that the ST even got a look-in though =)
Re: X to close
#29Interesting, but the connection to symbols from Japan seems a bit dubious (or at least not very recent). The term "cross out", and hence the use of an "x" to indicate negating something, seems to have been in common use in English since at least the 1920s: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=cross+out
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Re: X to close
#30Wow great article. I don't agree with his conclusion that it came from Japan. But it's as good a reason as any I suppose.
One quick thing, IIR Windows 2.0 and 3.0, the '-' button in the upper left wasn't "close". It was a small menu that happened to have close as an option.