[bhauer]

As 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) animation akin to the Macintosh of the time, composed of a sequence of boxes first shrinking from the size of the window to a small box and then shuffling that off to the top left of the screen.

As bemmu points out, the maximize button (at the top right in a GEM/TOS window) is four arrows pointing outward. Incidentally, GEM did not have a notion of "minimize."

Put another way, although I find the Japanese inspiration argument interesting, I don't think there's a whole lot to it. I think it's a fun coincidence.

In any event, thank you for the trip down memory lane and for the fun screen grabs!

[ekianjo]

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.

[wbillingsley]

Word Perfect 5.1 for DOS, released in 1989, was very popular indeed among Microsoft's customer base. And the first to have a (DOS) menu bar.

Open the File menu and 'x' is highlighted in red in the word 'Exit'.

In other words, prior to Windows 95's release, DOS programs had already set firmly in Microsoft's customers' minds that 'x' was for exit.

RISC OS (1987), used on Acorn computers in schools in the UK also used an 'X' close button on the windows. And look at what word is prominent in the bottom right of the desktop... exit

http://www.dasmirnov.net/media/blogs/blog/bigarthur.gif

It seems that as soon as the word "exit" is prominent in your UI, 'x' is going to become associated with exit.

An enormous amount of Microsoft's target market were already using Word Perfect every day and seeing red 'x's for exit. So when they decided to put a button on the window bar, what else were they likely to pick?

[Bahamut]

Was this true in all of their games? I know early PlayStation games did use O for confirm and X for cancel - even a few years into its lifetime, this was the case as Final Fantasy VII is an obvious example.

[praseodym]

It depends on the game and possibly the console region: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_(console)#Regional_...

[ekianjo]

Are you talking about the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VII or the western version ? I have the Japanese version at home, I can check quickly if needed.

[simias]

Both versions use O to accept and X to cancel. In the european FFVIII hovewer it was switched around. I think only early and rushed ports of japanese titles used O to accept on the playstation.

It's still true today, for instance dark souls on the ps3 uses O to accept on the japanese version and X on the western.

I'm still not sure why Sony did that by the way. While I'm willing to believe that X strongly means "bad/false" in japanese, I don't feel like it really means "accept" in western cultures as far as I know. When the playstation came out I don't think I would have had a lot of trouble accepting O for accept and X for cancel.

[tragic]

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

[mhurron]

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

[gambiting]

It depends on the version of the console. Japanese Playstation Portable and Vita have the O button as "accept" - but I have noticed that not all games respect that. European games played on a Japanese Vita will use X for accept, but on the Playstation Portable most games will use the system settings, rather than their own(there were exceptions, however).

[brazzy]

> I don't think there is much relevance in the Japanese argument.

I wouldn't discount it; one instance where I'm pretty sure it was taken into account is the design of checkboxes (HTML and otherwise). At least in Germany a checkbox on paper would be marked with an x to represent true - but that would be utterly confusing to a Japanese person.

[empressplay]

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 =)