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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?

#31

Post by StavrosK »

eterm wrote: post #11
ebbv wrote: post #6

I always assumed because the point of the diagonal arrow cursor is located at 0,0 in the image, making the origin location of the mouse cursor image and the click point of the arrow the same. Whereas with any vertical arrow cursor, the click point would no longer line up with 0,0.

In the windows 3.1 tool I mentioned above, you could actually choose a custom click point to be any point on the cursor. One good prank was to set someone's click point to outside the cursor.

Oh yeah, I remember that. ImgEdit or something? It was great, I spent so much time making the hand/finger cursor into a middle finger rather than an index.

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

#32

Post by igravious »

Aoyagi wrote: post #21

I tried a straight upwards cursor once. It felt terrible. The tilt gives the cursor "extended hand" feel.

To a right-handed person it does ...I imagine to a left-handed person it must feel like the cursor/pointer is pointing the "wrong" way. I am wrong on this lefto weirdies? Bonus upvotes for casual slur surely.

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

#33

Post by bluedino »

eterm wrote: post #2

I remember windows 3.1 had a utility for drawing custom cursors. I had great fun making cursors (I was around 10 at the time I guess) and had completed forgotten about it until now! I think that utility was a 16x16 grid, and indeed the easiest to see arrows utilsed the vertical, although actually a cursor which uses the horizontal and diagonal isn't bad either.

I hated sitting down to a machine with custom mouse cursors, mostly because the actual hit detection point was always in a weird spot.

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

#34

Post by dllthomas »

lotharbot wrote: post #24
darkmighty wrote: post #20

Nobody seems to mention a pretty good reason also: standard western text (and content in general) is oriented right-to-left; therefore covering only one side seems to me intuitively less obstructing (we can read perfectly up to the click spot, instead of being confused by what's underneath it)

In addition, it mimics what a right-handed person already does with their hand when pointing at something on a page or on a screen right in front of them, especially left-to-right text (using the right hand so it doesn't block the text). Pointing at something off to the side (outside the width of your shoulders) makes your hand tilt outwards; pointing at something directly in front makes your hand tilt inwards.

"(outside the width of your shoulders)"

Strictly speaking (after observing myself pointing) it's "outside your elbow", right? Which coincides roughly with "width of your shoulders" when your elbow is at your side or your elbow is straight, but can differ by up to the length of your upper arm...

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

#35

Post by csixty4 »

igravious wrote: post #32
Aoyagi wrote: post #21

I tried a straight upwards cursor once. It felt terrible. The tilt gives the cursor "extended hand" feel.

To a right-handed person it does ...I imagine to a left-handed person it must feel like the cursor/pointer is pointing the "wrong" way. I am wrong on this lefto weirdies? Bonus upvotes for casual slur surely.

You get used to it, just like you do with doors and all the other things designed with righty's in mind.

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

#36

Post by ds9 »

darkmighty wrote: post #20

Nobody seems to mention a pretty good reason also: standard western text (and content in general) is oriented right-to-left; therefore covering only one side seems to me intuitively less obstructing (we can read perfectly up to the click spot, instead of being confused by what's underneath it)

Some of the Linux GUIs used to have a feature that, if you set the mouse to left-handed, the cursor would tilt the other way. It was very ergonomic and seemed natural (and I would like it back :)

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

#37

Post by gordaco »

bluedino wrote: post #33
eterm wrote: post #2

I remember windows 3.1 had a utility for drawing custom cursors. I had great fun making cursors (I was around 10 at the time I guess) and had completed forgotten about it until now! I think that utility was a 16x16 grid, and indeed the easiest to see arrows utilsed the vertical, although actually a cursor which uses the horizontal and diagonal isn't bad either.

I hated sitting down to a machine with custom mouse cursors, mostly because the actual hit detection point was always in a weird spot.

Indeed, but the fun was not in using them, but drawing them!

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

#38

Post by throwawayLSKDNF »

joezydeco wrote: post #26
eterm wrote: post #2

I remember windows 3.1 had a utility for drawing custom cursors. I had great fun making cursors (I was around 10 at the time I guess) and had completed forgotten about it until now! I think that utility was a 16x16 grid, and indeed the easiest to see arrows utilsed the vertical, although actually a cursor which uses the horizontal and diagonal isn't bad either.

And Macintosh had CURS resources, which easily let you design your own with ResEdit or use the ones built into the system ROM: http://imgur.com/x0xRKCA

Or with Resorcerer... ([cough] 0000000000 [cough])

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

#39

Post by rurounijones »

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #3
eterm wrote: post #2

I remember windows 3.1 had a utility for drawing custom cursors. I had great fun making cursors (I was around 10 at the time I guess) and had completed forgotten about it until now! I think that utility was a 16x16 grid, and indeed the easiest to see arrows utilsed the vertical, although actually a cursor which uses the horizontal and diagonal isn't bad either.

The Commodore Amiga had something similar along with an early 'double 90 degree' cursor [1] and a 1/2 pixel ratio cursor in later versions if the OS [2]. Both are pretty delightful :) [1] http://toastytech.com/guis/amiga1cplpointer.png [2] http://geekometry.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/amigaos204-...

Welp, you just gave me a heap'o'nostalgia
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