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

[Spencer Janssen]

On Sun, Sep 13, 2009 at 11:01:39PM -0400, Andres Salomon wrote:
> I've noticed that the default root cursor isn't changed from X's default.  Is
> there a reason for this, other than just no one noticing because their display
> manager overrides it?  I've noticed this with nodm.  The patch below changes
> xmonad to override the default cursor.

I'm going to quote part of the FAQ and the homepage:

    1 When I start xmonad, nothing happens.

    Don't panic, this is expected behavior. XMonad is a minimal window manager,
    meaning it doesn't set a background, start a status bar, display a splash
    screen or play a soothing sound effect when it starts up. Once xmonad has
    started, the only thing it does is listen for your first command.

--

    xmonad is minimal.
    out of the box, no window decorations, no status bar, no icon dock. just
    clean lines and efficiency. 

In the default configuration, xmonad should do the minimum to be a useful
window manager and have the essence of xmonad: WM keybindings, keybindings to
launch other programs and the defining element of tiling layout algorithms.
This principle is a mixture of the Unix philosophy, minimalism, and an effort
to cater to power users that generally want tools that stay out of their way.

I think this patch very slightly infringes on each part of that principle.
Since it should be fairly easy for our target audience to set their pointer by
other means, it seems that the benefit of staying minimal outweighs the
benefits of the patch.

While the vision for xmonad's core is to be minimal, contrib is meant to be
chock full of any feature we can get our hands on.  A module for contrib to
set the mouse pointer from startupHook would be very appreciated!


Cheers,
Spencer Janssen