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").