Don't hijack my mouse pointer
ruky.me
ruky.me
It was a major win for the internet that it took this power away from the application layer.
void steal_focus_when_user_is_least_expecting() {
// stub, much better :)
}
That said, Microsoft should have fixed this long ago - it is hard but a few people can do it given a few years to work through all the special cases.
The mouse blob morphs into the background of any buttons you hover over, which is technically impressive but annoying in practice
I select long text when I'm reading, I use it for focus and to keep track where I was if I need to switch to some other task in the middle.
In general, excessive customization is a net negative if it breaks expectations.
Read more at: http://example.troll/lolyoufellforit.html
Vibe coding didn't make it easier to change the cursor, it made it easier for incompetent people to write software.
I'd love to see more people violating the design guidelines more often so that the internet can become a place worth visiting again, full of all the weird and wonderful ideas that people have locked up in their heads.
from the other side of the coin, these are some of the ways it was/still is done.
example of browser element focus:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/HTMLElement...
allows you to throw the focus around,in the browser.
example of WinAPI SetFocus :
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/winuser/...
allows you to throw the focus around in the OS
JS example of mouse as a trigger event:
https://www.w3docs.com/learn-javascript/moving-the-mouse-mou...
JS example of manipulating the mouse:
https://shyama.com/automating-mouse-clicks-and-movements-wit...
I can't see any difference between these in terms of UX - I got annoyed just looking at them.
Also, except when the pointer is over something, it isn't actually a pointer so you might not be able to position it precisely onto something. While trying to position it over something small⁰ it is going to cover the target making the process partially guesswork.
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[0] ignoring for a moment that something so small is likely bad UX in itself, like the single-pixel¹ border drag targets and scrollbars found on many things these days
[1] see similar discussions over in the thread about older UIs at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48104428 for this and related issues - even when we have far fewer pixels on the screen a single pixel wide/tall/both target was often considered bad form.
With this option placed it would just be another 'fun thing' you don't need to mind.
Being able to change the cursor to indicate a behaviour can be beneficial, especially with dynamic DOM elements.
Going rogue with mouse cursor icons is a UX minefield though, and it's usually done without any UX assessment of the impact.
This is certainly a wanted feature. I meant the ability for a website to change the cursor on its behalf, regardless of elements used or objects on the site. Context sensitive behavior on elements is something that should not be affected with said option.
Absolutely change my cursor. But to something that looks cool, like a dragon or a sword. Not to a circle.
##*:style(cursor: auto !important)
No. Some older systems actually had straight pointers. The slightly tilted design is, I assume, a result of wanting to point to something while still being able to see what is to the immediate left of the pointer; useful for left-to-right text.
It doesn't exactly answer the question, but I -- someone who doesn't watch video and wants text, articles -- have watched this video twice over. It's worth it :)
What next, don't use blink or marquee elements?
Or else!
Standard issue cursors are not that great in all environments, sometimes making the cursor massively big or doing other daft things to it make sense. It is all about context and golden rules don't help.