[xmonad] Re: [PATCH] XMonad: set the default root cursor to XC_left_ptr

[Matthias Kilian]

On Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 04:06:53PM -0400, Andres Salomon wrote:
> > Well, because you can set it elsewhere, and some people may want
> > to use another cursor. The natural way to do so is to configure
> > your X startup scripts, because it's WM independent.
> 
> I'm not sure what you mean here.  Are people really setting cursors via
> xsetroot, and feel strongly about it?  Is setting a string in
> your .xinitrc really what people consider "the natural way" to
> configure pointers (versus a GUI app like
> gnome-appearance-properties)?

If i need a GUI to configure my GUI, something is seriously broken.

Heck, do people using xmonad (or ratpoison, or scrotwm, or whatever
tiling and keyboard-driven window manager) really care about the
mouse cursor at all? Or do they fear editing some stupid ~/.xinitrc
or ~/.xsession?

> > Why add code to xmonad when it's not necessary?
> 
> Because it provides a default.

X11 provides a default (the ugly cross shaped cursor). Overriding
this in  your ~/.xsession and/or ~/.xinitrc is a way to get a fancier
cursor regardless of whatever window manager you're using.

If your favor display manager sets another default cursor, blame
your display manager.

> It's not a large amount of
> code at all, and it's pretty clear what it's doing.  Why make the
> unnecessary call out to xsetroot at X start time when it can easily be
> handled within XMonad via 4 lines of code?

It's adding code to xmonad that doesn't belong there.

> > Personally, I'm sometimes playing with and comparing different WMs
> > (stuff like xmonad, scrotwm, ratpoison), and I'm *used* to get the
> > cursor I like without tweaking the WM configuration first.
> 
> That's fine, but I could also point out window managers that override
> the cursor (ion3 and metacity, for example).  You're not guaranteed
> that the window manager won't override the default cursor.

Then ion3 and metacity are doing it wrong.

Ciao,
	Kili