Replacing the I-beam cursor system wide.

[Gene Heskett]

On Wednesday, January 19, 2011 01:41:20 am mcnichol at austin.ibm.com did 
opine:

> > From: Gene Heskett <gene.heskett at gmail.com>
> > 
> > On Tuesday, January 18, 2011 05:17:14 pm Thomas Dickey did opine:
> > > On Tue, 18 Jan 2011, James Cloos wrote:
> > > >>>>>> "r" == rhubarbpieguy  <rhubarbpieguy at gmail.com> writes:
> > > > r> Is it possible to replace the I-beam cursor system wide through
> > > > X?
> > > > 
> > > > Sure.  You need to change the (server-side) cursor font used by
> > > > older applications and also change the cursor theme used by most
> > > > newer apps.
> > > > 
> > > > Google should point to decent explanations of how to do those.
> > > > 
> > > > You probably want to start by editing your favourite cursor theme
> > > > to use something other than a I-beam in that spot (I beleive that
> > > > cursor's name is 'xterm') and re-generate it.  You may find that
> > > > to be sufficient for your needs.
> > > 
> > > man xterm (resources)
> > > 
> > >         pointerMode (class PointerMode)
> > >         
> > >                 Specifies when the pointer may be hidden as the user
> > > 
> > > types.  It will be redisplayed if the user moves the mouse, or
> > > clicks one of its buttons.
> > > 
> > >                 0  never
> > >                 
> > >                 1  the  application  running  in  xterm has not
> > > 
> > > activated mouse mode.  This is the default.
> > > 
> > >                 2  always.
> > >         
> > >         pointerShape (class Cursor)
> > >         
> > >                 Specifies the name of the shape of the pointer.  The
> > > 
> > > default is "xterm."
> > 
> > That it is, but where is the list and description of the other options
> > so that we can make considered choices?
> 
> Take a look in /usr/include/X11/cursorfont.h for a start.
> 
> Dan

My Gawd, that file is 24 years old, and dates way before the GPL!

But seriously, that is the text cursor, not the mouse cursor.  I am using 
the block, colored orange, but the mouse cursor is still the ibeam when its 
over the text screen.

Perhaps I didn't state that clear enough, I tend to overuse the "it" in my 
posts, a habit I am trying to break but old habits die hard it seems.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
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