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Comment by jzzskijj | Hacker News Reader

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.

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X closes the window not the application. The only intuition you need is to realise that window !== application.

In case of Spotify, that window is the application. And the only window that the application has. Hitting X in that window should quit the application IMO.

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.

> 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.

Far from exclusive to them though, and it seems to be (/have been?) a very common thing for IM clients to do. I can live with it as long as the devs put in the appropriate options for the behavior you want, but I'm not happy about it.

I sort of understand the point for IM client, that people won't close it unintentionally. But that is solved by showing a dialog asking do you want to close. Breaking Alt+F4's functionality is such an abomination that it is impossible to understand the thought process behind the decision.

Huh? I thought the point for an IM client is that you don't need a window anywhere, if you have the icon down there. So you can close the main window, or you can separately quit the application.

Well, in Skype (and Windows applications in general) there is a MINIMIZE button for that, next to X and maximize. Why make X also act as minimize?

Minimize puts your window in the taskbar whereas X closes the window (not in the taskbar anymore), but whether it also closes the program or not at the same time is up to the program (and ideally should be configurable). That's how I understand it at least.

BTW: In Skype 6.18.59.106 there is an option for "Keep Skype in the taskbar while I'm signed in." When it is unchecked, minimize and X behaves as you said.

Not to mention web sites that use a graphical icon in the background instead of a textual one or lack a fallback X on pop up windows. I'm forever groping around trying to shut these overlays in the dark.

A large number [citation needed] of Windows apps that have done this are things that most users would want to run in the background, primarily things like instant messaging clients, music players, and daemon-y programs (torrents come to mind).

There's frequently a setting to configure if it truly closes or not, but it's not usually there for more mass-market targeted apps (death by settings and configuration options to support being the likely cause).

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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