Re: Fred Cursor

[bill@cambridge.apple.com (Bill St. Clair)]

At 11:30 PM 10/13/93 -0400, Steve Strassmann wrote:
> >To: info-mcl@ministry.cambridge.apple.com
> >From: ogus@gaulois.berkeley.edu (Arthur E. Ogus)
> >Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp.mcl
> >Subject: Fred Cursor
> >Summary: Can it be edited?
> >
> >Is it possible to change the Fred insertion cursor, e.g. to make it
> >larger, thicker, or into a rectangle instead of a line?  The only
> >cursor resource that Resedit reveals is the GC cursor, so I don't see
> >how to change it using the standard resedit methods.
> >
> >Thanks in advance.
>
>I think MCL uses the standard System cursor, which is #$ibeamcursor.
>
>You might find this in your System or Finder, but I don't usually
>recommend people go mucking about in their system folder with ResEdit,
>unless they like to live dangerously.
>
>There's several utilities which thicken up the ibeam cursor, most of
>these were written for Powerbook users for whom the LCD panels need
>this sort of thing. Try the info-mac archives at
>sumex-aim.stanford.edu:/info-mac/

The #$IBeamCursor is in the System resource file. On many machines,
it's in the ROM. The easiest way to customize it yourself is to add
a ('CURS' 1) resource to MCL's resource fork using ResEdit. MCL should
then use that resource. It worked for me to copy the cursor from the
System file, paste it into MCL, then edit it to change the vertical line
from 1 pixel wide to 3 pixels wide.

Steve is right about mucking around in your System file with ResEdit.
Be careful!