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X to close

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Re: X to close

#172
post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting that that screenshot shows other windowing decorations, but that "close" is hidden in a menu option.

ignore the outer part, thats from a newer version of windows. i remember using the short cuts for x to exit so i searched for a screen shot that had the file menu open

The inner part shows scrollbars. MS Edit has alerts and buttons and scrollbars.

Re: X to close

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

High screen resolutions were certainly possible on DOS PCs of the era, but since PCs were an open platform, developers would often target their software at the lowest common denominator of hardware, so outside of specific niche markets, they didn't typically produce DOS applications intended for high-resolution displays.

On top of that, the DOS market in that era always preferred to make the tradeoff in favor of higher color depths rather than higher resolutions. At 640x480, a VGA display contemporary to NeXTStep could display 16 colors, and at 320x200, 256 colors.

Re: X to close

#174
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think in FFVIII it was Triangle to cancel. (O was the menu button.) They completely jumbled it all up for some reason.

Triangle was the menu button, O for cancel, X to accept/action, Square to play Triple Triad.

I believe I had to remap 'menu' back to Triangle when I played through it on my Vita last month. Could be misremembering though.

Re: X to close

#176
post #122

Another old example. WordStar: Used "X" to Exit to system in its main menu ( https://www.flickr.com/photos/markgregory/6946218793/?rb=1 ) - I do not know the revision shown in the screen shot. According to Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordStar ) WordStar was released in 1978. Which moves the date back to at least 1978 to use X for exit. However, there is possibly a very simple explanation that the blog po…

Not to mention the letter X sounds like the word "exit," or "ex it." In this way using X as a keyboard command to represent exit might be distinct from the way OP posits X to represent batsu (false, bad, wrong or attack).

though X already means false or bad in western culture, the opposite of a tick (✓). there's also "ex-partner" (my ex) etc. in a gui, it's an ex-window.

Re: X to close

#177
post #167
post #122

Another old example. WordStar: Used "X" to Exit to system in its main menu ( https://www.flickr.com/photos/markgregory/6946218793/?rb=1 ) - I do not know the revision shown in the screen shot. According to Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordStar ) WordStar was released in 1978. Which moves the date back to at least 1978 to use X for exit. However, there is possibly a very simple explanation that the blog po…

In WordStar it's a little more nuanced than that. First, it's properly ^K X, as the ^K prefix subcommands block/file actions, as written by Rob Barnaby into all the WordStar versions starting with CP/M. Second, ^KX as 'exit' means to save the latest revisions out to file before quitting, while ^KQ, 'quit', means to abandon the revisions. You might get a confirmation dialog and a chance to change your mind before you'…

I think Turbo Pascal worked that way too

Re: X to close

#178

It can also be thought of as a pun -- when you want to "exit" an application, you "X it".

No, you don't use a space: "xit name" (http://ex-vi.sourceforge.net/ex.html)

If ex is not your favorite editor, use EX (at least, that is what I think Wikipedia claims. I'm sure any decent TECO user never exits their editor, browsing the web in a browser macro)

[I also checked ed and edlin. They had two commands for exiting: w writes and exits, q quits]

Re: X to close

#180

Too bad, that popular Windows applications like Skype and Spotify have gone against this and made "X to minimize". And their making of Alt+F4 also to minimize drives me nuts.

That's because Microsoft's guidelines say not to leave icons in the notification area any more for running apps. For skype and friends, the behaviour has always been to keep running even after the last window is closed, but keep an icon in the notification area (a.k.a. systray).

It does mess with everybody's expectations of closing the last window freeing space on the taskbar though.

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