5 ms·

I've been using Emacs since 1996. One of the many reasons I like it is the default non-blinking full block cursor. It brings a certain calmness to the editing p

by tpmx 5y ago

I've been using Emacs since 1996. One of the many reasons I like it is the default non-blinking full block cursor. It brings a certain calmness to the editing process. No stress or distraction. It feels so clean. It's interesting how very subtle design decisions like these matter so much.

dang 5y ago
Is that the default? The cursor in my Emacs blinks and I don't believe I told it to. Edit: M-x blink-cursor-mode FTW - thanks!
- tpmx 5y ago
  Uh, please clarify? :) I do believe it is the default. Hard to know what's default when you've been carrying over your .emacs for two decades. Every single fresh install on random throwaway installs I've done has defaulted to a single non-blinking block cursor though.
  - gmfawcett 5y ago
    It's easy -- just run "emacs -q" to bypass all your local config. Default in GUI is a blinking cursor. (Default in terminal is the terminal's own blink default.)
    - tpmx 5y ago
      > Default in GUI is a blinking cursor. (Default in terminal is the terminal's own blink default.) Ah, that probably explains my confusion. Sorry about spreading it.
Teckla 5y ago
I prefer a blinking cursor, otherwise I often find it hard to find the cursor on the screen. Also prefer block cursor to underline cursor for the same reason.
- csdvrx 5y ago
  On Windows Terminal and others, I think you can use a non standard color (example: red, pink...) which should help you easily locate it.
a_e_k 5y ago
Emacs has a lot of cool little touches to the way it blinks the cursor. blink-cursor-delay (defaults to 0.5 seconds): Keeps the cursor visible and not blinking when you're rapidly navigating around or typing. Most other apps seem to do this sort of thing too, but it's an easy detail to overlook. blink-cursor-blinks (defaults to 10): Blinks the cursor a certain number of times and then stops blinking. One way I do customize it is to set blink-cursor-alist to '((t . hollow)). When the cursor blinks it alternates between a full block and the outline of a block so that it never disappears completely.
morelisp 5y ago
Emacs does blink by default. On the other hand, it is the only piece of software I know with `blink-cursor-blinks` - which is I think 10 by default, I've reduced it to 3 - so the cursor blinks only a couple times and then stops.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
anon_123g987 5y ago
Blinking can be disabled in RStudio, too, though it's not the default. I know this because RStudio doesn't respect my XFCE settings, where blinking can also be disabled, or the blinking-rate set (almost) OS-wide.
perihelions 5y ago
My perception is the opposite: it's stressful to see a non-blinking block cursor, because that's what emacs looks like when it locks up. Frozen cursors are the very first visible indication. Switching to a "calm" cursor, to me, would feel a bit like an Apple user setting their default mouse cursor to a pinwheel of doom [0]. (Background: emacs is a single-threaded lisp program, and "blink the cursor" is just another lisp function [1] running on an event timer. (At least that's the case in GTK emacs). So if any lisp function hard-crashes, the cursor will immediately crash too). [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinning_pinwheel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinning_pinwheel [1] https://github.com/emacs-mirror/emacs/blob/emacs-28/lisp/frame.el#L2644 https://github.com/emacs-mirror/emacs/blob/emacs-28/lisp/fra...

by tpmx 5y ago

dang 5y ago

Is that the default? The cursor in my Emacs blinks and I don't believe I told it to. Edit: M-x blink-cursor-mode FTW - thanks!

tpmx 5y ago
Uh, please clarify? :) I do believe it is the default. Hard to know what's default when you've been carrying over your .emacs for two decades. Every single fresh install on random throwaway installs I've done has defaulted to a single non-blinking block cursor though.
- gmfawcett 5y ago
  It's easy -- just run "emacs -q" to bypass all your local config. Default in GUI is a blinking cursor. (Default in terminal is the terminal's own blink default.)
  - tpmx 5y ago
    > Default in GUI is a blinking cursor. (Default in terminal is the terminal's own blink default.) Ah, that probably explains my confusion. Sorry about spreading it.

Teckla 5y ago

I prefer a blinking cursor, otherwise I often find it hard to find the cursor on the screen. Also prefer block cursor to underline cursor for the same reason.

csdvrx 5y ago
On Windows Terminal and others, I think you can use a non standard color (example: red, pink...) which should help you easily locate it.

a_e_k 5y ago

Emacs has a lot of cool little touches to the way it blinks the cursor. blink-cursor-delay (defaults to 0.5 seconds): Keeps the cursor visible and not blinking when you're rapidly navigating around or typing. Most other apps seem to do this sort of thing too, but it's an easy detail to overlook. blink-cursor-blinks (defaults to 10): Blinks the cursor a certain number of times and then stops blinking. One way I do customize it is to set blink-cursor-alist to '((t . hollow)). When the cursor blinks it alternates between a full block and the outline of a block so that it never disappears completely.

morelisp 5y ago

Emacs does blink by default. On the other hand, it is the only piece of software I know with `blink-cursor-blinks` - which is I think 10 by default, I've reduced it to 3 - so the cursor blinks only a couple times and then stops.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

anon_123g987 5y ago

Blinking can be disabled in RStudio, too, though it's not the default. I know this because RStudio doesn't respect my XFCE settings, where blinking can also be disabled, or the blinking-rate set (almost) OS-wide.

perihelions 5y ago

My perception is the opposite: it's stressful to see a non-blinking block cursor, because that's what emacs looks like when it locks up. Frozen cursors are the very first visible indication. Switching to a "calm" cursor, to me, would feel a bit like an Apple user setting their default mouse cursor to a pinwheel of doom [0]. (Background: emacs is a single-threaded lisp program, and "blink the cursor" is just another lisp function [1] running on an event timer. (At least that's the case in GTK emacs). So if any lisp function hard-crashes, the cursor will immediately crash too). [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinning_pinwheel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinning_pinwheel [1] https://github.com/emacs-mirror/emacs/blob/emacs-28/lisp/frame.el#L2644 https://github.com/emacs-mirror/emacs/blob/emacs-28/lisp/fra...