From: vladimir@intrepid.com (Vladimir Vukicevic) Subject: Re: cursor blink question Date: Thu, 29 Apr 1993 03:20:03 GMT
In article <1993Apr26.141506.3792@klaava.Helsinki.FI> wirzeniu@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Lars Wirzenius) writes:
>winfrdw@dutiws.twi.tudelft.nl (Rob de Winter) writes:
>>There's certainly no way to stop it from blinking. Why do you need a
>>slower cursor anyway ?
>
>Blinking cursors are unpleasant, at least in some people's eyes.
>
>Since all console output goes is controlled by the console driver
>(isn't it?), it might be possible to turn of the hardware cursor
>altogether and do a non-blinking software cursor by inverting the
>character at the cursor. This scheme doesn't work very well under
>MS-LOSS, since no self-respecting program writes via the operating
>system.
>
You can do the same thing with cursors under MS-DOS; however, you still
can't turn the blink off. This is because the cursor is controlled by
the BIOS. However, I have not found a way to tell the bios to stop blinking
the cursor. So, unless Linux completely bypasses the BIOS, and reads raw
hardware character codes & does its own text-mode IO to the video card, I
don't think that there's a way. However, I hope that someone can prove me
wrong, since I also hate the blinking cursor.
If it really bothers you, here's a quick fix: use X. The cursor doesn't blink
in an xterm. :-)
- Vladimir
-- #---- Vladimir Vukicevic #include <std_disclaimer.h> #--------- vladimir@intrepid.com #--------