the dim purple block cursor often gets lost

the dim purple block cursor often gets lost

[jidanni]

The dim purple block cursor often gets lost -- hard to find. Especially
since I disabled blinking of it.

So I attempted to perk up its color, e.g., with
(set-cursor-color "black")
but this sometimes obscures the character underneath it, even more
that I suppose the purple block cursor does.

So I need one more additional line for my .emacs file, that will make
that character not be obscured.

Given that old dog me cannot learn any new tricks (e.g., M-x
customize), other than adding a line or two to my .emacs file, what
might those lines be?

DA> Facemenu is part of Emacs; you need not download anything.
Indeed M-x FacemenuTAB shows many bewildering choices
DA> See the Emacs manual, nodes Format Colors and Format Faces, for
DA> example. See also the Text Properties menu (C-mouse-2), which is
DA> the menu interface to facemenu.
Indeed I found 30.12.5 Colors in Formatted Text, more bewilderment.
DA> Hi-lock is also part of Emacs - nothing to download. See the Emacs manual, node
DA> Highlight Interactively.

DA> It's not clear what you want. Start with reading about those two, to help you
DA> decide more what you are after.
Ah, you assume that I am smart. "Back to school with Rodney Dangerfield." --Too late.

DA> Do you really want to do that in code, and not interactively?
Yes Yes one or two trusty setq's that I can experiment with. Ah, now I
am getting somewhere.

DA> Describe your use case a little more: When do you want to do this,
DA> how often, which characters, how long the effect should last, etc.
DA> Do you want to modify the text properties of just one character?
DA> Do you just want the character under the cursor to have a special
DA> foreground color, regardless of which character that is (so that
DA> as the cursor moves so does the character that is colored change?

All I know is the cursor is always a purple block, and if I make it
more noticeable with a different color, the character underneath
becomes less noticeable, and needs to be perked up.

DA> Read a bit about facemenu and hi-lock, depending on what you are after.

Even though I am the master architect of my whopping
http://jidanni.org/comp/configuration/.emacs , I seem to be lately
lacking Learning Enzyme #3 or whatever for applied learning of all that.

DA> First though - It occurs to me now that perhaps what you are after is
DA> customizing the `cursor' face. You can change the foreground and background of
DA> that face separately. For instance, you can set the background to "Black" and
DA> the foreground to "Yellow". That should make the character under the cursor
DA> appear yellow. But which character is made yellow that way will change when you
DA> move the cursor - the character currently under the cursor will always be
DA> yellow.

Yes. Give me. Me want.

DA> Try it: M-x customize-face cursor. You can also try M-x customize-group
DA> cursor.

OK, tried (customize-face (quote (cursor)))
and there I was, at that blasted customization interface that I hate,
with only one choice visible, my current cursor. Sure the other colors
are only a click away maybe. But (kill-buffer "*Customize Face: Cursor*") is
safest for me.

Anyway, just a line or two for .emacs is what I want. Thanks. Maybe
even a line I can drop into ~/.emacs-custom.el and then tinker with by
hand, without having to use the wretched interface.

RE: the dim purple block cursor often gets lost

[Drew Adams]

> DA> Try it: M-x customize-face cursor. You can also try M-x 
> DA> customize-group cursor.
> 
> OK, tried (customize-face (quote (cursor)))
> and there I was, at that blasted customization interface that I hate,
> with only one choice visible, my current cursor. Sure the other colors
> are only a click away maybe. But (kill-buffer "*Customize 
> Face: Cursor*") is safest for me.
> 
> Anyway, just a line or two for .emacs is what I want. Thanks. Maybe
> even a line I can drop into ~/.emacs-custom.el and then tinker with by
> hand, without having to use the wretched interface.

Untested - no warranty:

(custom-set-faces
  '(cursor ((t (:foreground "Yellow" :background "Blue"))) t))

Re: the dim purple block cursor often gets lost

[jidanni]

OK, thanks. I'm now on track with
(custom-set-faces
 ;;'(cursor((t(:foreground"White":background"Black")))t))
 ;;'(cursor((t(:background"Black":foreground"White")))t))
 '(cursor((t(:background"White":foreground"Black")))t))
but just wonder why neither of the commented lines didn't make the
character underneath white enough (do I use the wrong laundry
detergent?) So I had to resort to the 3rd approach.