[DancingSponge]

What's the difference between the Minimise and the close program buttons on software.

Sorry if my terminology isn't right as I'm a recent convert from Windows, but I'm talking about the (x) and (_) buttons on the top left of the windows.

From what I can see the (x) button doesn't actually close the program from running, but just puts a black arrow below it's icon in the dock bar, while the (_) button puts an icon to the right side of the dockbar as if it's still running.

Is the only way to properly close a program to click and hold over the icon and select quit?

[RevEvs]

To Quit a program ("File --> Exit in windows) you choose File --> Quit.

Minimise, as in windows, minimises a window. In windows it shrinks the window to a button in the taksbar, on the mac you get a thumbnail of the window in the dock - this is the (_) button. There is a pretty obvious animation that shows the window minimising.

Close (x) button, this closes the window. It does not neccesarily quit the applicaion. On windows if you close the last window then the application is quit, on a mac this is not the case, i.e. you can still have a webbrowser running even if you have closed all the windows. (clciking ont he icon smply loads a new window).

Unfrotunately Apple have not stuck to their own guidelines - and now SOME programs will quit when the window is closed.

If you have a decent amount of RAM you dont need to quit all your programs, they will get cached to disk when not in use.

i.e i leave safari running and just clcik the icon to quickly bring up a new window when i want to browse. as programs are still running, but with no windows open, it means you dont have to wait for frequently used applciations to launch.

[DancingSponge]

Aaah ok... so is it that when you close (x) the program, all it does is close the window, but the program is still loaded into memory so there is a faster load up time for the next time you want to use it?

I've got gig and a half of RAM so I've no worries there. BTW, is there any way I can see how much of my system resources is being used and by what programs?

[f1000]

Originally Posted by DancingSponge

Aaah ok... so is it that when you close (x) the program, all it does is close the window, but the program is still loaded into memory so there is a faster load up time for the next time you want to use it?

Yes, but there's at least one exception to this rule: Windows Media Player for the Mac. Closing the active window quits the program.

[Cadaver]

Originally Posted by f1000

Yes, but there's at least one exception to this rule: Windows Media Player for the Mac. Closing the active window quits the program.

So do many apps, including iPhoto, the System Preferences, Toast, and I'm sure several others I'm not thinking of.
Either way, once an application was opened, MacOS X will keep as much of it cached as it can (until the resources are needed for something else) so the next time its launched it'll open faster. Example: Launch Photoshop, then Quit. Now launch it again. Much faster the second time even though you've previously quit the app.

To inspect free memory, use either the "top" command from the terminal command line, or use the Activity Monitor from the Utilities folder for a GUI interface to "top" (plus a few other bits of information like network throughput, disk usage, etc).

But to be honest, if you don't "quit" a program and just close all its windows, OS X will swap out the RAM the application is occupying to the virtual memory file if the app has been idle for a while and the resources are needed elsewhere. There really isn't much need to expressly quit applications on Mac OS X. Things like Photoshop and Word I tend to quit when done, while smaller apps like Address Book, Preview, iCal, iTunes, etc., are usually always "on."

[monkeybrain]

Use Activity Viewer to check on resources used etc. It's in Utilities folder I think. Quickest way is to Spotlight search for it - it should be at the top of the list by the time you've typed 'act'.

[wataru]

A lot of apps that have one "main" window will quit when you close that window, like iPhoto, Font Book, Dictionary, iSync, etc. But there's no hard-and-fast rule regarding this behavior, so it can be confusing.

And Activity Viewer is at /Applications/Utilities/Activity Viewer.app. I highly recommend MenuMeters for monitoring CPU/memory/disk/network activity.

[TETENAL]

Originally Posted by RevEvs

To Quit a program ("File --> Exit in windows) you choose File --> Quit.

On Mac OS X the Quit command is in the application menu (since it quits the application not the file).

[SoBayJake]

The explanation I've seen for how closing the last window of an app sometimes results in the application quitting and sometimes not is:

- If the application can continue to do something without a window (iTunes, Mail, Address Book) it will NOT quit
- If the application cannot do something without a window (iPhoto, System Preferences) it will quit.

Note this isn't ALWAYS right, since Safari will NOT quit, even tho, to me, it seems it can't do anything useful without a window.

-Jake

[monkeybrain]

You could have Safari downloading something without a window open.

[wataru]

Originally Posted by SoBayJake

The explanation I've seen for how closing the last window of an app sometimes results in the application quitting and sometimes not is:

- If the application can continue to do something without a window (iTunes, Mail, Address Book) it will NOT quit
- If the application cannot do something without a window (iPhoto, System Preferences) it will quit.

Note this isn't ALWAYS right, since Safari will NOT quit, even tho, to me, it seems it can't do anything useful without a window.

-Jake

What is Address Book going to keep doing without a window? As I recall, it originally would quit when its window was closed, but then by popular demand or something they changed it.

[TETENAL]

Originally Posted by wataru

What is Address Book going to keep doing without a window?

It's waiting for calls and SMS received on your bluetooth cellphone.

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by DancingSponge

Aaah ok... so is it that when you close (x) the program, all it does is close the window, but the program is still loaded into memory so there is a faster load up time for the next time you want to use it?

You can have several windows open within a program. For instance, you can have 10 documents open in TextEdit at once. When you close a document, you aren't closing the entire program; just that document. Likewise, when you close the last window, you aren't closing the entire program; just that document. To quit an application, you chose Quit from the application's menu.