Comment by Daub
4 years ago
You all probably know this… Contemporary computing behavior is for the cursor to change to a little hand as it rolls over a link or button. This was first introduced by HyperCard, so it is there as an everyday reminder of its legacy.
On the same note, I often wonder why the mouse cursor on so many OSes is identical to the one used on the Macintosh[0]. Did they really all just copy what was in the Macintosh System Software, or was there an earlier pioneer of the typical black arrow with a white outline?
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_Mac_OS#/media/File:App...
First image in this blog post shows the cursor as it was first(?) seen on an Alto. So, so much of our computing paradigms came from Xerox PARC.
http://www.righto.com/2017/10/the-xerox-alto-smalltalk-and-r...
Ah yeah but the "tail" on that arrow is much longer! The one I see in Linux and BSDs appears to be literally pixel-for-pixel identical to the Macintosh one, though I haven't exactly done a closeup comparison.
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To some degree there is only one solution to this problem of arrow cursor design. Vertices, horizontals and 45 degree diagonals render effectively, even on low resolution screens. The arrow head of a mouse cursor consists of: 1 vertical, 1 horizontal, 1 leftward 45 degree diagonal and 1 rightward 45 degree diagonal.