Why is the caret made, and why does it blink?

Comments

• themusicman@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  It exists so that you know where a character will appear when you press a key on the keyboard.

  It blinks because it’s hard to find a line on a page of lines.

  I realise what sub we’re on, but this is pushing it…

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  • master5o1@lemmy.nz ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Nothing will top the r/nostupidquestions favourite of [Is Stephen pronounced like Stephen?](reddit.com/…/is_stephen_pronounced_the_same_as_st…]

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  • fidodo@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    More important reason for it blinking is so you know it isn’t a character |

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    • themusicman@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      That’s more or less what I said, isn’t it?

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  • A_A@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    …sub we’re on (…) this is pushing it …

    Lol ! Could be on explain like I’m 5

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• bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  It’s from way back when computers only had text interfaces. A filled rectangle showed you where the next character you type would appear. And I guess they made it blink for several reasons.

  It makes it easier to see. It makes it easier to tell apart from other letters and symbols. And if it is on top of an existing letter it enables you to see that letter. And I guess it’s a nice call to action; see that blinking thing -> do something with it.

  With time it was thinned to a line but it still shows the uaere where text will appear when they press a key on their keyboard. And now that it is so thin the blinking still makes it easier to see.

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  • CoggyMcFee@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    “Thinned to a line” makes it sound like it was an aesthetic change. The solid block means “a character will go in this spot, and if there is already something in this spot the new character will overwrite it”. And the line means “a character will go in between whatever is to the left and right of this line”. And you might switch between them for various reasons.

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  • A_A@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Nice ! (also : typo @ uaere user )

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• FuglyDuck@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  A blinking cursor is easier to find if you forgot where you left it, so to speak.

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• bionicjoey@lemmy.ca ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  The human eye is drawn to movement. Something blinking on and off triggers our eyeballs instincts.

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• bstix@feddit.dk ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  It’s called a cursor.

  en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursor_(user_interface)

  Cursor is Latin for ‘runner’. A cursor is a name given to the transparent slide engraved with a hairline used to mark a point on a slide rule. The term was then transferred to computers through analogy

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  • hikaru755@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    “Caret” is also correct, and more specific, since “Cursor” can also mean the mouse cursor.

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caret_navigation

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    • bstix@feddit.dk ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Yes , the link I provided also explains the etymology of “mouse”. In short, the invention of a free moving cursor was initially called a “bug”, but since the caret cursor was also called a “cat” they called it mouse. The first mouse pointers were operated by trackballs, so the physical device didn’t resemble a mouse until later.

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• AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  It tells you where you are, and it blinks so you can find it easily, and know it’s not a character.

  Imagine editing a document without it: you’d have to start typing to find out where your text is going to go. How many times have you clicked your mouse pointer at the beginning of a word, but then realized your cursor was after the first character of that word? You knew that because the cursor was blinking at you.

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• independantiste@sh.itjust.works ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Fun fact it does not blink when you are typing

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