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Trails were an accessibility feature in early GUI environments (based on accident of early GUI renderers; even Windows 3.1 used to make trails "naturally" on an
by WorldMaker 4y ago
Trails were an accessibility feature in early GUI environments (based on accident of early GUI renderers; even Windows 3.1 used to make trails "naturally" on an over-taxed machine when repaints were taking too long), but I think most of the uses of them, especially in the early days of the web a lot of it was just "personality". That OG Geocities feel of finding a bunch of interesting JS snippets, copy and pasting, and maybe lightly tweaking the ones that spoke to you and seem like the coolest thing to add to your fan page for your current favorite cartoon or local roller coaster.
- pjerem 4y ago> Trails were an accessibility feature in early GUI environments I’m pretty sure the option still exists on Windows 11
- WorldMaker 4y agoYes, but it got removed from overt Accessibility Features at some point Vista-ish and is hidden as an "additional option" that's three or four clicks away from "Ease of Access".
- drewzero1 4y agoNot to mention that early laptops had LCDs with very slow refresh rates, which could make a moving pointer very difficult to track. The trail gave an indication of where the pointer had been and was going as it was traveling.
- userbinator 4y agoI still leave the mouse trails on and long --- definitely helps on a huge screen with many colourful windows.