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Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

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Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

#111

Post by j16sdiz »

simondotau wrote: post #5
behnamoh wrote: post #2

The real question is: Why does Windows cursor look "imperfect"? https://mspoweruser.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/windows-c...

The web page which that image is sourced from[0] and the reddit page it is in turn sourced from[1] makes a lot of hand-wavey analogies to optical balancing (which is a real phenomenon[2]) but doesn't make any compelling arguments for why they apply in this specific case. An alternative explanation is that this intentional imperfection exists to match the unavoidable imperfection which occurred when the cursor graphic…

The article from Surur Davids is wrong. Windows cursor have an outline, the one from Mac don't.

Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

#115

Post by bmicraft »

justsomehnguy wrote: post #110
Stratoscope wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bingo! Now that you jogged my memory, I can confirm this. The next question is why you need a white outline around the black arrow. This is easy to answer: if you didn't do that, what would the black arrow look like against a black background?

Some DE solved that by having an inverse outline.

I'm pretty sure even on windows there is the option of having the whole cursor be the inverse of the background

Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

#116

Post by Shorel »

vintagedave wrote: post #19

Time for one of my favourite Youtube videos, by Posy (Michiel de Boer.) 'Mouse cursor history (and why I made my own).' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YThelfB2fvg It runs through the history of mouse cursors, as well as problems with some of the standard ones, and shows, among other things, historical cursors which were straight and not tilted. It is one of those amazing videos that make the internet worthwhile, is…

Great video and great link.

I use his set on Windows (It looks awesome) and on Ubuntu, the Linux port from here:

https://github.com/simtrami/posy-improved-cursor-linux

Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

#117

Post by Sakos »

loceng wrote: post #52
vintagedave wrote: post #19

Time for one of my favourite Youtube videos, by Posy (Michiel de Boer.) 'Mouse cursor history (and why I made my own).' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YThelfB2fvg It runs through the history of mouse cursors, as well as problems with some of the standard ones, and shows, among other things, historical cursors which were straight and not tilted. It is one of those amazing videos that make the internet worthwhile, is…

Seems like this should be in a list somewhere with that big sized keyboard history book that was on HN last week?

Oh, dang, I can't believe I missed that. Would've loved to get a copy of it. It looks amazing.

Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

#118

Post by Someone »

arrrg wrote: post #82
vasco wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What matters is the hand you use your mouse with, I'm left handed for writing and most things but use the right hand for the mouse and it doesn't feel strange.

Why do you use your mouse with the right hand? I’m also left handed and use the mouse with my right hand, I think mostly because my parents bought a computer table with our first computer that had the spot for the mouse fixed on the right side (keyboard drawer with just enough space for the keyboard alone and below that a little extra drawer to the right to create space for the mousepad and mouse when the keyboard dr…

I also write left handed and mouse right handed. My theory is that it’s more efficient when using a QWERTY keyboard layout. The QWERTY layout is heavily left dominant in English and, I guess, many other Western European languages (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY#Properties: “In the QWERTY layout many more words can be spelled using only the left hand than the right hand. In fact, thousands of English words can be spelled using only the left hand, while only a couple of hundred words can be typed using only the right hand (the three most frequent letters in the English language, ETA, are all typed with the left hand)”)

So chances are that the last key hit before using the mouse is on the left side of the keyboard, as is the first key you’ll hit after using the mouse.

That makes mousing with the right hand while keeping the left hand on the home row faster than the reverse.

Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

#119

Post by troupo »

Cockbrand wrote: post #107
troupo wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Early UX design wasn't always done with as much thought and sophistication as today's software designers (are claiming to) apply. Oh, but it was. Here's Apple HIG from 1987 listing extensive bibliography on the subject: https://x.com/andy_matuschak/status/1447409175596699652 (here's the full PDF: https://andymatuschak.org/files/papers/Apple%20Human%20Inter... ) Modern "designers" apply as much thought and care as a…

I think the point here is > wasn't always done with as much thought While Apple cared a lot about perfecting UX, Microsoft had other priorities.

Microsoft did a lot of user and interface research. It wasn't as streamlined as Apple's, but it's incorrect to say that they didn't give it much thought.

I don't have a link to OS-level considerations, but here's a series of articles on how MS Office's original ribbon came to be: https://web.archive.org/web/20080316101025/http://blogs.msdn...

Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?

#120

Post by mhandley »

papichulo2023 wrote: post #78
raffraffraff wrote: post #39

Without reading everything there is on the subject, I'd guess it's tilted for the same reason it's tilted to the left . Humans are tool makers and tool users. After enough time the tool becomes an extension of the body, even if the tip of the tool is mechanically or virtually detached from the hand that is controlling it. The tool maker designed this as a right-handed tool, coming into the frame in the right hand. If…

The only tool I find hard to use, as a left handed, is scissors, the rest is just fine. As for the mouse, always used it with the right hand.

Even us righties need to use scissors in the left hand occasionally, such as when trimming the finger nails on the right hand. At least with nail scissors, the trick is to flip the scissors around so they point towards you rather than away. Then you're still forcing the blades together rather that apart.
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