I hope GTK and GNOME (or is GTK part of GNOME?) adopt this, I didn’t even know just how bad the inefficiency with todays cursors is. Having a single svg for each cursor and rendering it server-side makes so much more sense.
Did someone already open an issue for this?
witty_username@feddit.nl
on 11 Mar 2024 10:22
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Thordros@hexbear.net
on 11 Mar 2024 07:26
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That was a very cool read. I’m not particularly technical—I can build a PC and install an OS, and that’s about it—and I understood most of it. I had no idea that cursors were such heavy pieces of crap!
Yeah vector gui is a very cool idea. That said, arbitrary scaling on windows “just works” these days so definitely possible on Linux too without any radical tech changes
VinesNFluff@pawb.social
on 11 Mar 2024 11:34
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I hope this becomes popular enough that a lot of major distros start adopting it as a default
Specifically because I want to see turbo-weirdos talk about how higher-quality cursors are “bloat” or “against KISS” for the next 10 years. 💀
Grass@sh.itjust.works
on 11 Mar 2024 16:13
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I snorted my coffee reading this. It’s probably more in the inevitably become true category rather than funny category too
VinesNFluff@pawb.social
on 11 Mar 2024 16:49
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If none of my predictions come true, I made some peeps laugh and that’s enough
If they do I get to call back to this post and pretend I’m smart (I am not)
Either way, it’s a net positive.
Killing_Spark@feddit.de
on 11 Mar 2024 17:37
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Don’t forget to delete this comment before you call back to the original one. Otherwise the future people will know you aren’t actually smart!
Edit: Also, hello there future people!
Armando3996@lemm.ee
on 11 Mar 2024 19:34
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Tbh I dont really see how anyone can call this bloat( I use doas btw). Its just so much more space efficient. 4 example I ported capitaine cursors and it takes below 200 kbs of space, its just that much more space efficient
VinesNFluff@pawb.social
on 11 Mar 2024 19:38
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You are most likely correct from a technical point of view.
But don’t ever underestimate the potential of weird folks to be – Weird.
Not that I think it’s per se a bad thing – But I feel like a lot of Linux people are pack bonded to the utilities and tools they have grown used to. Whatever justification they write comes after the fact from an emotional reaction to seeing the thing they are bonded with lose ground.
I must admit that I personaly see this as slightly bloated for using SVG, although I don’t see a good alternative.
Supporting SVG fully basically requires a webbrowser, because it has JavaScript support.
The best alternative I can think of is using fonts formats, but that is less accessible for custom cursors, and idk how they deal with colors.
stepanzak@iusearchlinux.fyi
on 16 Mar 2024 15:41
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I don’t think you have to, or even should, support JavaScript in cursor themes.
Quereller@lemmy.one
on 11 Mar 2024 12:44
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Please make sure it doesn’t contain any bugs which can be exploited.
swab148@startrek.website
on 12 Mar 2024 17:13
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0-day’d by my fucking cursor, smh
eveninghere@beehaw.org
on 12 Mar 2024 22:10
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Use Rust!
—White House
FrankTheHealer@lemmy.world
on 11 Mar 2024 12:58
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This is interesting, but help me understand, does hypercursor not allow animated cursors?
WalrusDragonOnABike@reddthat.com
on 11 Mar 2024 13:17
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Metadata
Some cursors cannot become SVGs, and that’s fine. Some cursors are used for more than one shape, and that’s fine. Some cursors are animated, and that’s fine!
All of a shape’s properties are described in a small meta.hl file alongside them.
Instead of each frame of animation being a grid of pixels, each frame is a small collection of math describing the visuals.
But we’d still have frames to use for animation, if we want.
Instead of replacing one PNG for another PNG to make the illusion of movement, we replace one SVG with one SVG instead.
KISSmyOS@feddit.de
on 11 Mar 2024 15:03
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Sometimes I long back for the times when I just used my computer to do things, instead of forming an opinion about the compression rate of my cursor’s image data.
timbuck2themoon@sh.itjust.works
on 12 Mar 2024 12:52
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One of the more interesting things I’ve read here. Very nice work. So long as it is free of vulnerabilities (with your small codebase, seems it should be) then this seems like a great addition. Hoping for widespread adoption.
brax@sh.itjust.works
on 12 Mar 2024 17:55
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Man, I’ve never thought about cursors at such a macro level before… Is the way it changes based on context of what it’s hovering something really technical, or is there a call of some sort sent from the OS that is interpreted?
radiofreeval@hexbear.net
on 12 Mar 2024 18:37
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Well at least that rat is doing something interesting as opposed to throwing waifus at things and harassing people.
stepanzak@iusearchlinux.fyi
on 16 Mar 2024 15:44
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I don’t know the full context, but your comment seems more like harassing. It definitely adds nothing to the debate and only creates toxic atmosphere on lemmy.
Yo! I would love for something like this to become a thing because I have recently become a big fan of SVGs. Would absolutely love a custom cursor that scales to any size with minimal issues of it looking too small on the 1080 TV I sometimes plug my laptop into using HDMI.
threaded - newest
Neat!
Interesting. I didn’t realize XCursor predates most image formats XD
X* predates almost everything still in common use.
Which is, frankly, amazing.
It’s also why Wayland took (is taking) so long. It has to compete against X11 with decades of development.
That’s a tall order.
it is ancient when talking about computer related things. 1984 was the initial release. Almost twice my age holy!
Well I’ll just go ahead and die of old age then since I was alive during its initial release
Thanks for sharing this, was a neat look under the hood.
interesting read
I hope GTK and GNOME (or is GTK part of GNOME?) adopt this, I didn’t even know just how bad the inefficiency with todays cursors is. Having a single svg for each cursor and rendering it server-side makes so much more sense.
Did someone already open an issue for this?
GTK is mainly developed by Gnome
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GTK
That was a very cool read. I’m not particularly technical—I can build a PC and install an OS, and that’s about it—and I understood most of it. I had no idea that cursors were such heavy pieces of crap!
Interesting and fun read, thank you !
😁
Very cool. I wish the entirety of the computer’s interface was scalable SVG so any custom resolution is possible and looks good.
Yeah vector gui is a very cool idea. That said, arbitrary scaling on windows “just works” these days so definitely possible on Linux too without any radical tech changes
I hope this becomes popular enough that a lot of major distros start adopting it as a default
Specifically because I want to see turbo-weirdos talk about how higher-quality cursors are “bloat” or “against KISS” for the next 10 years. 💀
I snorted my coffee reading this. It’s probably more in the inevitably become true category rather than funny category too
If none of my predictions come true, I made some peeps laugh and that’s enough
If they do I get to call back to this post and pretend I’m smart (I am not)
Either way, it’s a net positive.
Don’t forget to delete this comment before you call back to the original one. Otherwise the future people will know you aren’t actually smart!
Edit: Also, hello there future people!
Tbh I dont really see how anyone can call this bloat( I use doas btw). Its just so much more space efficient. 4 example I ported capitaine cursors and it takes below 200 kbs of space, its just that much more space efficient
You are most likely correct from a technical point of view.
But don’t ever underestimate the potential of weird folks to be – Weird.
Not that I think it’s per se a bad thing – But I feel like a lot of Linux people are pack bonded to the utilities and tools they have grown used to. Whatever justification they write comes after the fact from an emotional reaction to seeing the thing they are bonded with lose ground.
I must admit that I personaly see this as slightly bloated for using SVG, although I don’t see a good alternative. Supporting SVG fully basically requires a webbrowser, because it has JavaScript support. The best alternative I can think of is using fonts formats, but that is less accessible for custom cursors, and idk how they deal with colors.
I don’t think you have to, or even should, support JavaScript in cursor themes.
stares at gnome
Absolute bloat.
[Goes back to enjoying his 300mb 9999dpi ultra hi-res waifu pointing bitmap cursor] /s
This is awesome
Please make sure it doesn’t contain any bugs which can be exploited.
0-day’d by my fucking cursor, smh
Use Rust! —White House
This is interesting, but help me understand, does hypercursor not allow animated cursors?
Seems like it should support it?
Instead of each frame of animation being a grid of pixels, each frame is a small collection of math describing the visuals.
But we’d still have frames to use for animation, if we want.
Instead of replacing one PNG for another PNG to make the illusion of movement, we replace one SVG with one SVG instead.
Sometimes I long back for the times when I just used my computer to do things, instead of forming an opinion about the compression rate of my cursor’s image data.
One of the more interesting things I’ve read here. Very nice work. So long as it is free of vulnerabilities (with your small codebase, seems it should be) then this seems like a great addition. Hoping for widespread adoption.
Man, I’ve never thought about cursors at such a macro level before… Is the way it changes based on context of what it’s hovering something really technical, or is there a call of some sort sent from the OS that is interpreted?
Well at least that rat is doing something interesting as opposed to throwing waifus at things and harassing people.
I don’t know the full context, but your comment seems more like harassing. It definitely adds nothing to the debate and only creates toxic atmosphere on lemmy.
Yo! I would love for something like this to become a thing because I have recently become a big fan of SVGs. Would absolutely love a custom cursor that scales to any size with minimal issues of it looking too small on the 1080 TV I sometimes plug my laptop into using HDMI.
It is? It only works on hyprland tho. That being said its really easy porting xcursor themes over. It does all the things you just described.
It should work everywhere, not only on hyprland. At least that’s the goal.