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Re: X to close

#141

Post by coldtea »

antihero wrote: post #117
david927 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not standard. If it's a one-window app, such as Skype, it should close the app. BareTorrent is also sort of a daemon process (where you often want it to live in the systray), and it follows standards. Minimize will put it in the system tray and close actually closes it. It's standard and feels intuitive.

I don't think so - I find this very subjective - I've always assumed that X just closes the window, even if it's a single window app. This is consistent, just some applications happen to also run in the background.

>I've always assumed that X just closes the window

That was one of the old differences between Windows and OS X behavior (or app-centric vs window-centric).

If you're reffering to Windows, then X usually closed the app too.

Re: X to close

#142

Post by DanBC »

boobsbr wrote: post #138
lwh wrote: post #116

The delete/rubout key on many old terminals had an X on it. Like this: http://www.cosam.org/images/vt220/keyboard.jpg

The backspace key on my Lenovo keyboard is identical. And if I remember correctly, it was the same key on an electrical typewriter I used in the 90s.

On typewriters you would backspace and then overtype an X. Those keyboards tend to just use the word "backspace" or a back arrow symbol.

So typewriters use this symbol when they automate the overstrike or they moved to correction tape.

Re: X to close

#143

Post by dfox »

literalusername wrote: post #36

In this early demo (Codename: Chicago), the minimize and maximize buttons have been redesigned, but the close button remains the same, and to the left as before. I wonder where the author got the idea that the [-] button at the top-left was a close icon. It was the "Control Box", a menu icon. AFAIK it's still there, just invisible -- hit alt+space to open it. Disclaimer: I'm currently unable to test that.

Control box was replaced by window icon itself and even on Windows 7 seems to work the same way, double clicking on window's icon closes the window (I had to test that).

Re: X to close

#144

Post by mattlondon »

sbw1 wrote: post #13

Interesting, 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

This.

Everyone remembers being told at school from a very early age to "cross out" things you dont want any more (such as writing the wrong word/spelling, getting the sum wrong etc). At least in western cultures anyway, this seems fairly universal.

Seems to me to be a very easy semantic jump to go from "disregard this mistake" on paper to "disregard this thing I am looking at" on computer screens.

Re: X to close

#145

Post by rodh »

unwind wrote: post #104
itazula wrote: post #65

Wow, I had always thought the "X" was like an elevator close button. Sort of like a greater-than sign and a less-than sign put together: ><.

That's a really interesting idea, that had never occured to me. Probably because I'm pretty aware of the close-doors button actually looking like >| See for instance https://www.google.com/search?q=elevator+close+button&tbm=is... .

Actually there are buttons with a line through them, and ones without. They maddeningly mean different things. See http://petesguide.com/symbols/elevator-button-symbols/

Re: X to close

#146

Post by abrowne »

glurgh wrote: post #4

http://toastytech.com/guis/ns08.html NextStep 0.8, '88 vintage.

Windows 95 looks quite similar to NeXTSTEP, with very similar gray window decorations and beveled (might be the wrong word) borders and buttons. It could be a design of times kind of thing, but to me it looks very "inspired".

Re: X to close

#147

Post by coldpie »

coldtea wrote: post #141
antihero wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think so - I find this very subjective - I've always assumed that X just closes the window, even if it's a single window app. This is consistent, just some applications happen to also run in the background.

> I've always assumed that X just closes the window That was one of the old differences between Windows and OS X behavior (or app-centric vs window-centric). If you're reffering to Windows, then X usually closed the app too.

> If you're reffering to Windows, then X usually closed the app too.

I think his point is the X closes the window, and many, but not all, Windows applications also choose to quit when their (last) window is closed.

Re: X to close

#149

Post by mschaef »

abrowne wrote: post #146
glurgh wrote: post #4

http://toastytech.com/guis/ns08.html NextStep 0.8, '88 vintage.

Windows 95 looks quite similar to NeXTSTEP, with very similar gray window decorations and beveled (might be the wrong word) borders and buttons. It could be a design of times kind of thing, but to me it looks very "inspired".

For what it's worth, I remember thinking that Windows95 was 'inspired' by NeXTStep when it was new. The NeXTStep machines themselves were pretty amazing for their late-80's origin. They had (and effectively used) 4-level 1-megapixel displays at a time when PC's were largely stuck at 640x480 or worse.

Re: X to close

#150

Post by autokad »

This is a great story, and I enjoyed the look back at all the different OS. sadly if it happened today the x to close would have been patented.
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