Re: [AD] Using system mouse cursor

[Chris <kcat@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Evert Glebbeek wrote:
> I think we mean different things by the name hardware cursor.
> The way I use it is in the sense of the current implementation: it is a 
> custom cursor that is drawn by the OS rather than Allegro.

When I say hardware cursor, I mean a cursor (typically custom, but it 
not need be so) that is drawn by something above Allegro (the graphics 
hardware and/or the OS). In my mind it would be silly to seperate the 
two (hardware and OS cursor) since that is solely up to the mouse (and 
possibly graphics) drivers to implement.

> > But since Allegro is not designed for that kind of seperation, we should 
> > make as few differences as possible.
>
> Actually, what we are currently trying to do is what Allegro was not 
> designed to do.

Allegro had some design plans for hardware cursors.. whether they were 
ever fully fleshed out or not I can't say (didn't the VBE/AF driver 
support hardware cursors?).

> System cursors are, in principle, a different entity in that Allegro does 
> not (normally) draw them, except when the system has no default cursor.

If the system has no default cursor, wouldn't there be no system 
cursor(s) to draw?

> In 
> behavior, they are similar enough to hardware cursors (except when Allegro 
> draws them) as to make the distinction irrelevant to the user of the 
> library. The subtle difference matters to the internal library code 
> though.

But Allegro itself would never draw system or (custom) hardware cursors. 
That's the whole point of them, to leave the hardware and/or OS to do it 
for us. Allegro would only ever draw its own (default or user-supplied) 
when the software cursor is used.

- Kitty Cat