<div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">> What if it referred not to going backwards in writing,<br>> but backwards in time (counterclockwise) - overlay the
<br>> arrow on an analog clock face?<br><br>Nice idea. Do clocks run clockwise everywhere in the world? I think<br>clockwise-running clocks are pervasive enough that it may be safe to<br>make that association.</blockquote>
<div><br>30sec illustration attached (terrible, but you get the idea.)<br><br>The "clockwise" convention was developed because that's how sundials worked in the Northern hemisphere - unsure whether "counterclockwise" clocks exist aside from joke shoppes, but I'm willing to bet that clockwise clocks are more prevalent than LTR writing systems if this is actually a worry. The clock makes the icon significantly more complex, although it resolves a lot of the {stylistic*, meaning} ambiguity of the "usual" undo. As Ka-Ping said, this might just turn out to be a non-issue. Or it might be one of those cool subtle touches that spreads to other places.
<br><br>*at least I haven't seen two "undo" icons that look much alike - as opposed to the immediately recognizable "back," "forward" "close-X" "email" etc. icons, but maybe that's just me.
<br><br>-Mel</div></div>