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Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?
41–50 of 326 posts
Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?
#42Because it mimics the fountain pen? That’s how you hold it when you write with one (the cursor being the virtual tip) https://youtu.be/U9mWKwXfF6s?t=155s
If this is the case, should someone using a left handed mouse have a cursor that tilts the opposite way?
Don't we? I distinctly recall that when I was using a left-handed mouse on WinNT 4 in the nineties, the mouse pointer was reversed? Whether that was the original cursor or just someone at IT being a leftie and installing a custom cursor, though, I have no idea.
I later found it much better for me to simply use my right hand for mousing about, leaving my left hand free for taking notes.
Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?
#43Another reason is likely clipping. When drawing the cursor you have to prevent pixels from being drawn off screen to the right or bottom of the screen. If the cursor were symmetric, you would have to watch out for the left edge of the screen as well.
Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?
#44It's a bit scary to see that one of the highest-voted answers to this question (188 points) is completely wrong. It says that the (0,0) hotspot simplified the calculations for a cursor position update, because you didn't have to add any (X,Y) offset.
https://ux.stackexchange.com/a/52349/43259
The problem with this idea is that the arrow pointer was never the only cursor. On the first Macintosh, there were many others including the text I-beam and a couple of kinds of crosshairs. And you could define any cursor of your own by providing a bitmap and transparency mask and the hotspot position.
You can see some of these cursors in the original Inside Macintosh Volume I and also in previous works from PARC.
https://web.archive.org/web/20230114223619/https://vintageap...
Page 50 of the PDF (page I-38 of the document) shows some sample cursors.
Page 158 of the PDF (page I-146 of the document) has the pixel detail and hotspot locations for several cursors.
Fun fact! The hotspot for the arrow cursor was not (0,0) but was (1,1).
Can anyone explain why? I think I used to know, but it has long since escaped my memory and I would appreciate a refresher.
This page also has the definition of the Cursor structure:
TYPE Bits16 = Array[0..15] OF INTEGER;
Cursor = RECORD
data: Bits16; {cursor image}
mask: Bits16; {cursor mask}
hotSpot: Point; {point aligned with mouse}
END;
To be clear, the scary part is not that someone came up with the idea that (0,0) saved a few instructions. In fact, the notion came up elsewhere in this HN discussion. It's a perfectly reasonable hypothesis, until you realize that there are many cursor shapes that require different hotspots.
The scary part is that 188 people upvoted this answer!
Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?
#45Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?
#46Without 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…
Try reversing it, I’m curious
Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?
#47Without 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…
>Without reading everything there is on the subject
Everything, or in this case the second answer on the linked page ;) I do believe you are (both) on to something though.
Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is tired and uninformed, please just let it die. Apple was issued a design patent which is a real, common thing and is highly specific. It isn’t just patenting a roundrect and calling it a day.
[flagged]
It wasn’t funny, the response was informative, and throwing around the term “fanboy’ is juvenile.
Re: Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?
#49Top answer [1] (when I'm looking, others seems to refer to other top answers) says that the original cursor _was_ straight, and links to an image, which 404's [2].
Anyone have a working link?
