INFORMAL SURVEY: blinking cursor

INFORMAL SURVEY: blinking cursor

[Thien-Thi Nguyen]

i'm following a thread wherein the participants discuss the
blinking box cursor, visible w/ emacs under a windowing system.
what follows is a personally-motivated survey (i'm curious),
and DOES NOT represent views of emacs hackers, etc.  some of
them may read your responses and act upon the answers, but
that is NOT GUARANTEED.  [insert more disclaimers here.]

* have you tried using emacs w/ the blinking box cursor?

* do you find it uncomfortable?
  (if "no", you can skip the next question.)

* do you think it is an imposition to put:
    (blink-cursor-mode 0)
  in ~/.emacs to turn it off?

* do you use another shape cursor (such as vertical bar)?
  if so, which?

* how do the shape and the blinking affect your (dis)comfort?
  (i'm looking for correlation info, such as:
    shape: box, blinking: on, i-find-it: unbearable
    shape: vertical bar, blinking: on, i-find-it: no-worries
  in the response.)

* is cursor blinking a feature you would be inclined to
  change during an editing session?  if so, how often?

* how do the number of frames visible and the blinking affect
  your (dis)comfort?  (again, looking for correlation info.)

please trim this and the intro paragraph in your response.
thanks!  [insert more fearsomely strong disclaimers here.]
followups set.

thi

Re: INFORMAL SURVEY: blinking cursor

[Chong Yidong]

> * have you tried using emacs w/ the blinking box cursor?

Yes, for a while. It is not turned on now, though.
 
> * do you find it uncomfortable?
>   (if "no", you can skip the next question.)

Yes.
 
> * do you think it is an imposition to put:
>     (blink-cursor-mode 0)
>   in ~/.emacs to turn it off?

Not personally, since I have so much crap in my .emacs anyway. But I
imagine a new user can get pretty put off by it.
 
> * do you use another shape cursor (such as vertical bar)?
>   if so, which?

I use the default (block cursor) cursor, most of the time. (I have a
customization to change it to a bar cursor when the mark is active,
but that's beside the point.)
 
> * how do the shape and the blinking affect your (dis)comfort?
>   (i'm looking for correlation info, such as:
>     shape: box, blinking: on, i-find-it: unbearable
>     shape: vertical bar, blinking: on, i-find-it: no-worries
>   in the response.)

I have only tried the block cursor, and I find it horrible. I have not
tried the blinking cursor with other cursor types.
 
> * is cursor blinking a feature you would be inclined to
>   change during an editing session?  if so, how often?

It is now set to off. Always.
 
> * how do the number of frames visible and the blinking affect
>   your (dis)comfort?  (again, looking for correlation info.)

I usually use only 1 frame (at most 2 frames), and very few windows.

Re: INFORMAL SURVEY: blinking cursor

[Loyd Fueston]

Thien-Thi Nguyen <ttn@glug.org> writes:


> * have you tried using emacs w/ the blinking box cursor?
  yes

> * do you find it uncomfortable?
>   (if "no", you can skip the next question.)
  distracting and potentially uncomfortable

> * do you think it is an imposition to put:
>     (blink-cursor-mode 0)
>   in ~/.emacs to turn it off?
  No.  That's what I do.  Been using emacs for 5 years and got most of
  those basic issues settled in first year or so.

> * do you use another shape cursor (such as vertical bar)?
  no, just the box and hollowed-box in window not in focus


> * is cursor blinking a feature you would be inclined to
>   change during an editing session?  if so, how often?
  no.  I just leave it off.

I find customization to be a little confusing because of all the
options, except when I already know the name of a specific group.  Has
anyone ever thought about providing a documented template dot-emacs
suitable for inexperienced users, maybe putting up a message on the
initial splash-screen?  Once someone sees a few customizations that
actually affect his sessions, and learns a little bit about emacs
docs, it isn't that hard to deal with those customizations.  It's just
those initial changes that are confusing.

I would be willing to help produce and document such a dot-emacs after
April.  (Besides basic text-editing, I use auctex, gnus, and org-mode
extensively -- but not always in a sophisticated manner.  slime and
other CL packages sometimes.)

Re: INFORMAL SURVEY: blinking cursor

[Ulrich Hobelmann]

Thien-Thi Nguyen wrote:
> * have you tried using emacs w/ the blinking box cursor?
yes
> * do you find it uncomfortable?
yes
> * do you think it is an imposition to put:
>     (blink-cursor-mode 0)
>   in ~/.emacs to turn it off?
No, back when that was default I immediately did a search in emacs for 
blink and turned it off :)
> * do you use another shape cursor (such as vertical bar)?
>   if so, which?
No
> * how do the shape and the blinking affect your (dis)comfort?
>   (i'm looking for correlation info, such as:
>     shape: box, blinking: on, i-find-it: unbearable
>     shape: vertical bar, blinking: on, i-find-it: no-worries
>   in the response.)
I like the current box cursor.
A vertical bar like on the Mac would be as fine.
> * is cursor blinking a feature you would be inclined to
>   change during an editing session?  if so, how often?
No, it's a bug ;)
> * how do the number of frames visible and the blinking affect
>   your (dis)comfort?  (again, looking for correlation info.)
When it can be made to blink slowly it might be ok.

Re: INFORMAL SURVEY: blinking cursor

[August Karlstrom]

On tis, 2005-03-08 at 09:23 +0100, Thien-Thi Nguyen wrote:
> * have you tried using emacs w/ the blinking box cursor?
Yes.

> * do you find it uncomfortable?
No. A blinking cursor is easier to locate and sets it apart from the
contents of the buffer.

> * do you use another shape cursor (such as vertical bar)?
>   if so, which?
Yes, a vertical bar (with default width). That characters are inserted
to the left of the box cursor is actually something you learn, it's not
as intuitive as the bar shape. (Still I'm not quite satisfied with the
bar cursor, read my previous post `Inverse video with bar cursor').

> * how do the shape and the blinking affect your (dis)comfort?
>   (i'm looking for correlation info, such as:
>     shape: box, blinking: on, i-find-it: unbearable
>     shape: vertical bar, blinking: on, i-find-it: no-worries
>   in the response.)
I prefer a blinking cursor regardless of its shape.

> * is cursor blinking a feature you would be inclined to
>   change during an editing session?  if so, how often?
No, why would I?

> * how do the number of frames visible and the blinking affect
>   your (dis)comfort?  (again, looking for correlation info.)
I rarely use more than one frame and I can't see why multiple frames
with blinking cursor should affect (dis)comfort.

-- 
August

Re: INFORMAL SURVEY: blinking cursor

[Pascal Bourguignon]

Thien-Thi Nguyen <ttn@glug.org> writes:
 
> * have you tried using emacs w/ the blinking box cursor?

Yes, I configure it and all  software I can with a blinking box cursor.

> * do you find it uncomfortable?
>   (if "no", you can skip the next question.)

No, I find it necessary.

 
> * do you think it is an imposition to put:
>     (blink-cursor-mode 0)
>   in ~/.emacs to turn it off?

No. But I would not do it.
 
> * do you use another shape cursor (such as vertical bar)?
>   if so, which?

No, none.

 
> * how do the shape and the blinking affect your (dis)comfort?
>   (i'm looking for correlation info, such as:
>     shape: box, blinking: on, i-find-it: unbearable
>     shape: vertical bar, blinking: on, i-find-it: no-worries
>   in the response.)

In an editor or a terminal, I prefer a box over a bar, and I prefer
blinking over static.
 
> * is cursor blinking a feature you would be inclined to
>   change during an editing session?  if so, how often?

No, never.


> * how do the number of frames visible and the blinking affect
>   your (dis)comfort?  (again, looking for correlation info.)

Cursor should stop blinking when the frame is not active.  This is
what is implemented, so I'm happy, since it allows me to spot the
active cursor faster.


-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__                     http://www.informatimago.com/
You're always typing.
Well, let's see you ignore my
sitting on your hands.

Re: INFORMAL SURVEY: blinking cursor

[Alan Mackenzie]

Thien-Thi Nguyen <ttn@glug.org> wrote on Tue, 08 Mar 2005 09:23:45 +0100:

Hi, Thi!

> * have you tried using emacs w/ the blinking box cursor?

No.

> * would you find it uncomfortable? [question amended]
>   (if "no", you can skip the next question.)

Yes.

> * do you think it is an imposition to put:
>     (blink-cursor-mode 0)
>   in ~/.emacs to turn it off?

Not particularly:  I've already got (menu-bar-mode 0) and
(scroll-bar-mode -1) there.  Why not another?

> * do you use another shape cursor (such as vertical bar)?
>   if so, which?

Yes:  a blinking underline.  (It's all that's available, without serious
kernel hacking).

> * how do the shape and the blinking affect your (dis)comfort?
>   (i'm looking for correlation info, such as:
>     shape: box, blinking: on, i-find-it: unbearable
>     shape: vertical bar, blinking: on, i-find-it: no-worries
>   in the response.)

The more intrusive, the worse.  A blinking block would be intolerable for
me.  A steady block I can tolerate.  A steady bar (whether vertical or
horizontal), thick enough to be clearly seen would be best.

> * is cursor blinking a feature you would be inclined to
>   change during an editing session?  if so, how often?

No.  I'd leave it permanently off (if I could).

> * how do the number of frames visible and the blinking affect
>   your (dis)comfort?  (again, looking for correlation info.)

The more frames (or other Window system windows) on the screen at a time,
the more things that flash, blink, move or explode, the worse it gets for
me.  That's why I run on console mode with no mouse and one frame,
covering the entire screen, visible at a time.

> please trim this ......

> thi

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Munich, Germany)
Email: aacm@muuc.dee; to decode, wherever there is a repeated letter
(like "aa"), remove half of them (leaving, say, "a").

Re: INFORMAL SURVEY: blinking cursor

[roodwriter]

Thien-Thi Nguyen wrote:

< snipped for space reasons >

I'm a writer and I run Emacs full-screen so I can see as much of the
buffer as possible. Because of that I use the blinking box cursor
because it stands out from the mass of text.

For the same reason I also use M-x hl-line-mode to highlight the line
containing the cursor.

I'm sure the other cursors work better for other people but this is
the best for me.

--Rod 
Author of "Linux for Non-Geeks--Clear-eyed Answers for Practical Consumers"
and "Boring Stories from Uncle Rod." Both are available at
http://www.rodwriterpublishing.com/index.html.

To reply take the extra "o" out of the name.

Re: INFORMAL SURVEY: blinking cursor

[Ulrich Hobelmann]

Alan Mackenzie wrote:
>>* do you use another shape cursor (such as vertical bar)?
>>  if so, which?
> 
> 
> Yes:  a blinking underline.  (It's all that's available, without serious
> kernel hacking).

The BSDs (Free, I believe also Net) used to have a box cursor.  I think 
it was mainly one switch in the terminal driver init code... (if you are 
adventurous)

Re: INFORMAL SURVEY: blinking cursor

[Radomir Hejl]

> * have you tried using emacs w/ the blinking box cursor?

yes, it's default and whenever my emacs starts without .emacs
it annoys me

> * do you find it uncomfortable?
>  (if "no", you can skip the next question.)

yes, its implicit color and size blurs text and disturbs

> * do you think it is an imposition to put:
>    (blink-cursor-mode 0)
>  in ~/.emacs to turn it off?

I prefer menu option.

> * do you use another shape cursor (such as vertical bar)?
>  if so, which?

only blinking vertical bar

> * how do the shape and the blinking affect your (dis)comfort?
>  (i'm looking for correlation info, such as:
>    shape: box, blinking: on, i-find-it: unbearable
>    shape: vertical bar, blinking: on, i-find-it: no-worries
>  in the response.)

blinking verical bar with default blinking rate, greater speed is annoying

>
> * is cursor blinking a feature you would be inclined to
>  change during an editing session?  if so, how often?

don't know why

> * how do the number of frames visible and the blinking affect
>  your (dis)comfort?  (again, looking for correlation info.)

mostly I use one frame with more windows and I prefer non-blinking
hollow box cursor in non-active windows

Regards Radek Hejl

Re: INFORMAL SURVEY: blinking cursor

[Andrew M. Scott]

    >> * have you tried using emacs w/ the blinking box
    >> cursor?
Yes, it's always on.
    >> * do you find it uncomfortable?
    >> (if "no", you can skip the next question.)
No
    >> * do you use another shape cursor (such as vertical
    >> bar)? if so, which?
No.
    >> * how do the shape and the blinking affect your
    >> (dis)comfort? (i'm looking for correlation info, such as:
    >> shape: box, blinking: on, i-find-it: unbearable shape: vertical
    >> bar, blinking: on, i-find-it: no-worries in the response.)

I have found a (setq blink-cursor-interval 0.8) setting as more
comfortable than the default 0.5

    >> * is cursor blinking a feature you would be inclined to
    >> change during an editing session? if so, how often?
No
    >> * how do the number of frames visible and the blinking
    >> affect your (dis)comfort? (again, looking for correlation
    >> info.)

I typically have 3+ frames running, but they overlap like stacked
pieces of paper with slight offsets of the top-left corner coordinate;
therefore mostly the top frame is visible.

To be honest, I don't notice the blinking that much (but blinking is nice
to locate a cursor on a large, cluttered monitor), as I'm usually
cycling between frames, buffers, or typing vs. staring at a static
buffer.

Re: INFORMAL SURVEY: blinking cursor

[Mark Plaksin]

Thien-Thi Nguyen <ttn@glug.org> writes:

> i'm following a thread wherein the participants discuss the
> blinking box cursor, visible w/ emacs under a windowing system.
> what follows is a personally-motivated survey (i'm curious),
> and DOES NOT represent views of emacs hackers, etc.  some of
> them may read your responses and act upon the answers, but
> that is NOT GUARANTEED.  [insert more disclaimers here.]
>
> * have you tried using emacs w/ the blinking box cursor?

Just long enough to turn off the blinking.

> * do you find it uncomfortable?
>   (if "no", you can skip the next question.)

Yes.

> * do you think it is an imposition to put:
>     (blink-cursor-mode 0)
>   in ~/.emacs to turn it off?

No.

> * do you use another shape cursor (such as vertical bar)?
>   if so, which?

No.

> * how do the shape and the blinking affect your (dis)comfort?
>   (i'm looking for correlation info, such as:
>     shape: box, blinking: on, i-find-it: unbearable
>     shape: vertical bar, blinking: on, i-find-it: no-worries
>   in the response.)

Shape isn't important.  Blinking drives me batty.

> * is cursor blinking a feature you would be inclined to
>   change during an editing session?  if so, how often?

No.

> * how do the number of frames visible and the blinking affect
>   your (dis)comfort?  (again, looking for correlation info.)

I only use one frame.  When I watch people with many open windows (Emacs or
not) I get very distracted if they have a cursor blinking in each one.

Re: INFORMAL SURVEY: blinking cursor

[Alex Schroeder]

Thien-Thi Nguyen schrieb:
> * have you tried using emacs w/ the blinking box cursor?

It took me a while to discover how to disable it, so yes, a few minutes.

> * do you find it uncomfortable?

Yes

> * do you think it is an imposition to put:
>     (blink-cursor-mode 0)
>   in ~/.emacs to turn it off?

No, it is very long already.

> * do you use another shape cursor (such as vertical bar)?
>   if so, which?

No.

Alex.

Re: INFORMAL SURVEY: blinking cursor

[rgb]

> * have you tried using emacs w/ the blinking box cursor?
yes
>
> * do you find it uncomfortable?
>   (if "no", you can skip the next question.)

I don't like box cursors, blinking or not.  They make the
character they cover harder to see.
>
> * do you think it is an imposition to put:
>     (blink-cursor-mode 0)
>   in ~/.emacs to turn it off?

I like the cursor to blink.  It usually makes it easier to
find when I've lost it.
>
> * do you use another shape cursor (such as vertical bar)?
>   if so, which?

vertical bar - yes always. Much less of an obstruction to
seeing the text I'm working on.
>
> * how do the shape and the blinking affect your (dis)comfort?
>   (i'm looking for correlation info, such as:
>     shape: box, blinking: on, i-find-it: unbearable
>     shape: vertical bar, blinking: on, i-find-it: no-worries
>   in the response.)

see above answers
>
> * is cursor blinking a feature you would be inclined to
>   change during an editing session?  if so, how often?

Never have wanted to so far.  I wouldn't want it to blink
while I was actually typing..but it doesn't.  Just when I stop.
>
> * how do the number of frames visible and the blinking affect
>   your (dis)comfort?  (again, looking for correlation info.)

Generally speaking, I don't find multiple frames useful unless
I'm on a machine with multiple monitors.  I do however use
multiple windows all the time.  Only the active window cursor
blinks.  I think I would find it quite distracting to have a
cursor blinking in an inactive window.

Re: INFORMAL SURVEY: blinking cursor

[Thomas A. Horsley]

>* have you tried using emacs w/ the blinking box cursor?

Its hard to avoid trying it since it is on by default.

>* do you find it uncomfortable?

I find almost every visual "aid" added to emacs uncomfortable.
I spend most of the first few days after I switch to a new
release tracking down and squashing "helpful" new features.
(I have nice two color windows everywhere for instance - one
foreground, one background, no font-lock explosions of
visual spagetti all over my source buffers :-).

>* do you think it is an imposition to put:
>    (blink-cursor-mode 0)
>  in ~/.emacs to turn it off?

Nope.Tracking down new features and killing them off is a
fun game :-).

>* is cursor blinking a feature you would be inclined to
>  change during an editing session?  if so, how often?

Oh yea, I got one (count 'em: 1) frame too. Squashing
modes that want to pop up new frames was fun as well.
--
>>==>> The *Best* political site <URL:http://www.vote-smart.org/> >>==+
      email: Tom.Horsley@worldnet.att.net icbm: Delray Beach, FL      |
<URL:http://home.att.net/~Tom.Horsley> Free Software and Politics <<==+

Re: INFORMAL SURVEY: blinking cursor

[Dhruva Krishnamurthy]

>>>>> On Tue, 08 Mar 2005 09:23:45 +0100, Thien-Thi Nguyen <ttn@glug.org> said:
tn> * have you tried using emacs w/ the blinking box cursor?

Yes

tn> * do you find it uncomfortable?  (if "no", you can skip the next
tn> question.)

Yes

tn> * do you think it is an imposition to put: (blink-cursor-mode 0) in
tn> ~/.emacs to turn it off?

No.. I guess there is a smaple .emacs file in the emacs info section, we could
add this entry there to help first timers.

tn> * do you use another shape cursor (such as vertical bar)?  if so, which?

No

-dk

-- 
Name : Dhruva Krishnamurthy (dk)
Phone: +91-(0)80-22999190
Proud FSF member: #1935

Re: INFORMAL SURVEY: blinking cursor

[Klaus Zeitler]

>>>>> "Thien-Thi" == Thien-Thi Nguyen <ttn@glug.org> writes:
    Thien-Thi> 
    Thien-Thi> * have you tried using emacs w/ the blinking box cursor?

yes, I use it all the time (I've used a code snippet to achieve this years
before it was officially added)

    Thien-Thi> * do you find it uncomfortable?
    Thien-Thi>   (if "no", you can skip the next question.)

not at all

    Thien-Thi> * do you use another shape cursor (such as vertical bar)?
    Thien-Thi>   if so, which?

no, the default is perfect for me. I could live with a horizontal bar, but I 
loathe vertical bars.

    Thien-Thi> * how do the shape and the blinking affect your (dis)comfort?
    Thien-Thi>   (i'm looking for correlation info, such as:
    Thien-Thi>     shape: box, blinking: on, i-find-it: unbearable
    Thien-Thi>     shape: vertical bar, blinking: on, i-find-it: no-worries
    Thien-Thi>   in the response.)

perfect defaults for me (only one window, one frame, default rate is ok)
(another nice feature is that cursor changes color in overwrite-mode)

    Thien-Thi> * is cursor blinking a feature you would be inclined to
    Thien-Thi>   change during an editing session?  if so, how often?

no

    Thien-Thi> * how do the number of frames visible and the blinking affect
    Thien-Thi>   your (dis)comfort?  (again, looking for correlation info.)

I estimate my average of the number of frames in a longer session is
somewhere around 5. I use frames to organize my work and the blinking cursor
helps me not to lose track.

-- 
 ------------------------------------------
|  Klaus Zeitler      Lucent Technologies  |
 ------------------------------------------
---
To decode, wherever there is a repeated letter
(like "aa"), remove one of them (leaving, say, "a").

Re: INFORMAL SURVEY: blinking cursor

[Daniel Wright]

Thien-Thi Nguyen wrote:
 > * do you think it is an imposition to put:
 >     (blink-cursor-mode 0)
 >   in ~/.emacs to turn it off?

Could someone please explain why it would be an imposition to put such a 
line in your .emacs file? Is there another way to do it? I have other 
such things like
(menu-bar-mode 0)
(tool-bar-mode 0)
knocking about in my .emacs, and thought they belonged there.
I'm just young and curious, and know no other way to adjust such things!
Thanks,
Daniel.

> * have you tried using emacs w/ the blinking box cursor?
Yes, I've always used it - I first learned through this thread that I 
could turn it off!
> * do you find it uncomfortable?
>   (if "no", you can skip the next question.)
No, or I would've tried to do something about it!
> * do you think it is an imposition to put:
>     (blink-cursor-mode 0)
>   in ~/.emacs to turn it off?
No, but I'm waiting to see if someone can explain why - see the above 
question.
> 
> * do you use another shape cursor (such as vertical bar)?
>   if so, which?
No
> * how do the shape and the blinking affect your (dis)comfort?
>   (i'm looking for correlation info, such as:
>     shape: box, blinking: on, i-find-it: unbearable
>     shape: vertical bar, blinking: on, i-find-it: no-worries
>   in the response.)
box,blinking,happy
> * is cursor blinking a feature you would be inclined to
>   change during an editing session?  if so, how often?
No
> * how do the number of frames visible and the blinking affect
>   your (dis)comfort?  (again, looking for correlation info.)
I rarely work with more that one frame, but use multiple windows.

Re: INFORMAL SURVEY: blinking cursor

[Slawomir Nowaczyk]

On Tue, 08 Mar 2005 09:23:45 +0100
Thien-Thi Nguyen <ttn@glug.org> wrote:

#> * have you tried using emacs w/ the blinking box cursor?

yes

#> * do you find it uncomfortable?
#>   (if "no", you can skip the next question.)

no, I like it

#> * do you use another shape cursor (such as vertical bar)?
#>   if so, which?

no

#> * is cursor blinking a feature you would be inclined to
#>   change during an editing session?  if so, how often?

never

-- 
 Best wishes,
   Slawomir Nowaczyk
     ( Slawomir.Nowaczyk@cs.lth.se )

THE GOLDEN RULE:
    "He who has the gold makes the rules."

Re: INFORMAL SURVEY: blinking cursor

[Joe Fineman]

Thien-Thi Nguyen <ttn@glug.org> writes:

> * have you tried using emacs w/ the blinking box cursor?

Yes; it is the default, and I have left it on.

> * do you find it uncomfortable?

No.

> * do you use another shape cursor (such as vertical bar)?

No.

> * how do the shape and the blinking affect your (dis)comfort?

I find the default helpful because it makes the cursor maximally
conspicuous.  I think I would like it to blink a little faster.  I
wish I could make the Windows mouse pointer blink too; I continually
lose it.

> * is cursor blinking a feature you would be inclined to
>   change during an editing session?  if so, how often?

No.

> * how do the number of frames visible and the blinking affect
>   your (dis)comfort?  (again, looking for correlation info.)

I never have >1 frame visible.
-- 
---  Joe Fineman    joe_f@verizon.net

||:  Having a car is like having a second body -- one that is  :||
||:  always sick.                                              :||

Re: INFORMAL SURVEY: blinking cursor

[Peter Lee]

>>>> Thien-Thi Nguyen writes:

    > * have you tried using emacs w/ the blinking box cursor?

yes

    > * do you find it uncomfortable?
    >   (if "no", you can skip the next question.)

yes

    > * do you think it is an imposition to put:
    >     (blink-cursor-mode 0)
    >   in ~/.emacs to turn it off?

no

    > * do you use another shape cursor (such as vertical bar)?
    >   if so, which?

vertical bar

    > * how do the shape and the blinking affect your (dis)comfort?
    >   (i'm looking for correlation info, such as:
    >     shape: box, blinking: on, i-find-it: unbearable
    >     shape: vertical bar, blinking: on, i-find-it: no-worries
    >   in the response.)

shape: box, blinking: on, i-find-it: unbearable

shape: box, blinking: off, i-find-it: unbearable

shape: vert-bar, blinking: on, i-find-it: ideal with reasonable blink
interval... too fast becomes an annoyance

shape: vert-bar, blinking: off, i-find-it: ok, but can be hard to locate


    > * is cursor blinking a feature you would be inclined to
    >   change during an editing session?  if so, how often?

never

Re: INFORMAL SURVEY: blinking cursor

[Miles Bader]

Thien-Thi Nguyen <ttn@glug.org> writes:
> * have you tried using emacs w/ the blinking box cursor?

Yes

> * do you find it uncomfortable?

No

> * do you use another shape cursor (such as vertical bar)?
>   if so, which?

I've tried the vertical bar cursor several times, and always stopped
using it shortly -- it's simply too easy to lose track of in a screen
full of text.

> * how do the shape and the blinking affect your (dis)comfort?
>   (i'm looking for correlation info, such as:
>     shape: box, blinking: on, i-find-it: unbearable
>     shape: vertical bar, blinking: on, i-find-it: no-worries
>   in the response.)

 shape: box,  blinking: on,   i-find-it: great
 shape: box,  blinking: off,  i-find-it: great
 shape: bar,  blinking: on,   i-find-it: no discomfort, but too hard to see
 shape: bar,  blinking: off,  i-find-it: no discomfort, but too hard to see

> * is cursor blinking a feature you would be inclined to
>   change during an editing session?  if so, how often?

No

> * how do the number of frames visible and the blinking affect
>   your (dis)comfort?  (again, looking for correlation info.)

I don't like fast blinking; the Emacs default blink rate is pretty
reasonable though.  [I wonder if there's some accepted standard blink
rate -- the blink rate of the Emacs and gnome-terminal cursors seems to
be almost identical.]

I think one feature of the Emacs blinking cursor that makes it much
easier on the eyes is that it stops blinking automatically while you're
typing (and your eyes are focused on it).

-Miles
-- 
`There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
 Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.'

INFORMAL SUMMARY OF INFORMAL SURVEY: blinking cursor

[Alan Mackenzie]

Hi, Thi!

Thien-Thi Nguyen <ttn@glug.org> wrote on Tue, 08 Mar 2005 09:23:45 +0100:
> i'm following a thread wherein the participants discuss the
> blinking box cursor, visible w/ emacs under a windowing system.
> what follows is a personally-motivated survey (i'm curious),
> and DOES NOT represent views of emacs hackers, etc.  some of
> them may read your responses and act upon the answers, but
> that is NOT GUARANTEED.  [insert more disclaimers here.]

It would seem:

1: Every non-silly combination of shape and blinkability of the cursor is
needed and loved by some people, and equally hated by other people.

2: Once a user has found his favourite cursor setup, he never wants to
change it.

3: gnu.emacs.help participants don't, on the whole, mind writing simple
lisp into their .emacses.

> thi

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Munich, Germany)
Email: aacm@muuc.dee; to decode, wherever there is a repeated letter
(like "aa"), remove half of them (leaving, say, "a").

Re: INFORMAL SUMMARY OF INFORMAL SURVEY: blinking cursor

[Ulrich Hobelmann]

Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> 3: gnu.emacs.help participants don't, on the whole, mind writing simple
> lisp into their .emacses.

Still it wouldn't hurt to just leave the current Options->Blinking 
Cursor in the menu ;)

Re: INFORMAL SUMMARY OF INFORMAL SURVEY: blinking cursor

[Jochen Küpper]

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Ulrich Hobelmann <u.hobelmann-S0/GAf8tV78@public.gmane.org> writes:

> Still it wouldn't hurt to just leave the current Options->Blinking 
> Cursor in the menu ;)

Huh? I don't have it, neither do I need it. This is
GNU Emacs 21.3.1 (i386-redhat-linux-gnu, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll bars)

Greetings,
Jochen
-- 
Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit                http://www.Jochen-Kuepper.de
    Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité                GnuPG key: CC1B0B4D
        (Part 3 you find in my messages before fall 2003.)

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Re: INFORMAL SUMMARY OF INFORMAL SURVEY: blinking cursor

[Thien-Thi Nguyen]

Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> writes:

> 1: Every non-silly combination of shape and blinkability of the
> cursor is needed and loved by some people, and equally hated by
> other people.

i suppose this is not surprising.  as there are as many (or more)
points of view as there are states of mind, there are, as well,
that many "points in view".  and even one "out of view":

as an experiment, i have done:

  (modify-frame-parameters (selected-frame)
     '((cursor-type . (bar . 0))))

this is quite relaxing in lisp/scheme buffers (thanks mic![1]),
but not so friendly in dired and other modes.  this piece of
advice makes things a little easier:

(defadvice set-mark-command (before briefly-show-cursor activate)
  "Set the cursor shape to a box for a second, then to a zero-height bar."
  (flet ((jam (type) (modify-frame-parameters 
                      (selected-frame) `((cursor-type . ,type)))))
    (jam 'box)
    (sit-for 1)
    (jam '(bar . 0))))

i would like to make this into a standalone command, bound to
LSHIFT+RSHIFT (or perhaps any SHIFT key hit twice w/in 250msec),
but haven't figured out yet how to achieve the latter.  probably
involves delving into ratpoison innards...

thi


[1] http://www.glug.org/people/ttn/software/personal-elisp/dist/
         lisp/low-stress/turn-on-mic-paren.el