From kde-core-devel  Wed May 09 10:24:51 2001
From: Lubos Lunak <l.lunak () sh ! cvut ! cz>
Date: Wed, 09 May 2001 10:24:51 +0000
To: kde-core-devel
Subject: Re: kdesktop wait cursor
X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-core-devel&m=98940400229076

Dne st 9. kv=ECten 2001 11:49 Lubos Lunak napsal(a):
> Dne st 9. kv=ECten 2001 11:18 gigafalk@yahoo.com napsal(a):
> > Hi,
> >
> > Torsten Rahn wrote:
>
[snip]
>
>  I'd like to stress the fact that this discussion shouldn't be about wh=
at
> the Only Right Way(tm) of doing it is, it's just about which one is goi=
ng
> to be the default. If there are users who have a peripheral device that=
 can
> pat them on their heads, they can ( should be able to ) turn the defaul=
t
> off and implement their own startup notification and use their
> implementation that will pat them on their heads. I personally think th=
e
> semi-busy cursor is the most reasonable choice, with taskbar entries or
> kicker startup applet as alternatives. If someone likes none of these, =
they
> can write their own code for their favourite head patting device.
>
>  BTW, busy-cursor ... I'm still not sure how to implement it so that th=
e
> cursor will be changed for everything ( and I even don't know if it's t=
hat
> good idea ). It's not a problem to change the cursor for kdesktop or
> kicker, but it's can't be AFAIK done for all windows, because toplevel =
Qt
> widgets set the cursor to arrow. The idea with creating a little window=
 for
> showing the busy-cursor is also not very good, because this window woul=
d
> have to be somehow kept under the cursor even if the user moves the cur=
sor,
> and even if the window keeps moving to the cursor position, it can't be
> transparent AFAIK, so it would have to be shaped or we'll end up having
> square cursor :). Does anyone know how to do it acceptably ? I've been
> happily avoiding things like QPainter or QCursor till now.

 Actually, everyone suggesting some way of doing it should also come with=
 a=20
way how to implement it :). Unless someone knows how to globally override=
 the=20
cursor ( XRecolorCursor() is the only way I've found; I'm not sure if=20
changing the 'cursor' font is the best idea ), we simply can't have a=20
busy-cursor, because we cannot place a hidden window under the cursor, it=
=20
would be stealing the mouseclicks.
 But we could probably instead use a little borderless window with some i=
con=20
or pixmap placed next to the cursor ( or maybe after starting 5 apps at t=
he=20
same time having a chain of 5 icons chasing the cursor on the desktop :))=
  ).=20
This one shouldn't be that difficult and the result is almost the same, s=
o I=20
vote for this one.

 P.S. : Now that I've implemented startup notification even for apps star=
ted=20
from konsole, I can confirm that the taskbar entries or an applet aren't=20
simply good enough as the default. My taskbar is sometimes a bit crowded,=
 so=20
the startup entry is too small to notice ( moreover I have KTimemon runni=
ng,=20
so I'm kind of ignoring most of the activity in the bottom right corner o=
f my=20
desktop ). The startup notification simply has to be really visible by=20
default, that's why I listed little splashscreens among the possibilities=
=2E

 Lubos Lunak
--
 l.lunak@email.cz ; l.lunak@kde.org
 http://dforce.sh.cvut.cz/~seli