1 Overview

Cursory provides a thin wrapper around built-in variables that affect the style of the Emacs cursor on graphical terminals. The intent is to allow the user to define preset configurations such as “block with slow blinking” or “bar with fast blinking” and set them on demand. The use-case for such presets is to adapt to evolving interface requirements and concomitant levels of expected comfort, such as in the difference between writing and reading.

The user option cursory-presets holds the presets. The command cursory-set-preset is applies one among them. The command supports minibuffer completion when there are multiple presets, else sets the single preset outright.

The cursory-set-preset comman calls the cursory-set-preset-hook as its final step. Use this to run other functions after changing the cursor (Example hooks after setting a preset). The variable cursory-last-selected-preset may prove useful.

Presets consist of an arbitrary symbol broadly described the style set followed by a list of properties that govern the cursor type in the active and inactive windows, as well as cursor blinking variables. They look like this:

(bar
 :cursor-type (bar . 2)
 :cursor-in-non-selected-windows hollow
 :blink-cursor-mode 1
 :blink-cursor-blinks 10
 :blink-cursor-interval 0.5
 :blink-cursor-delay 0.2)

The car of the list is an arbitrary, user-defined symbol that identifies (and can describe) the set. Each of the properties corresponds to built-in variables: cursor-type, cursor-in-non-selected-windows, blink-cursor-blinks, blink-cursor-interval, blink-cursor-delay. The value each property accepts is the same as the variable it references.

A property of ‘:blink-cursor-mode’ is also available. It is a numeric value of either ‘1’ or ‘-1’ and is given to the function blink-cursor-mode: ‘1’ is to enable, ‘-1’ is to disable the mode.

Presets can inherit from each other. Using the special ‘:inherit’ property, like this:

(setq cursory-presets
      '(
        ;; Sample code here ...
        (bar
         :cursor-type (bar . 2)
         :cursor-in-non-selected-windows hollow
         :blink-cursor-mode 1
         :blink-cursor-blinks 10
         :blink-cursor-interval 0.5
         :blink-cursor-delay 0.2)

        (bar-no-other-window
         :inherit bar
         :cursor-in-non-selected-windows nil)
        ;; More sample code here ...
        ))

In the above example, the ‘bar-no-other-window’ is the same as ‘bar’ except for the value of ‘:cursor-in-non-selected-windows’.

The value given to the ‘:inherit’ property corresponds to the name of another named preset (unquoted). This tells the relevant Cursory functions to get the properties of that given preset and blend them with those of the current one. The properties of the current preset take precedence over those of the inherited one, thus overriding them.

A preset whose car is ‘t’ is treated as the default option. This makes it possible to specify multiple presets without duplicating their properties. Presets beside ‘t’ act as overrides of the defaults and, as such, need only consist of the properties that change from the default. In the case of an ‘:inherit’, properties are first taken from the inherited preset and then the default one. See the original value of this variable for how that is done:

(defcustom cursory-presets
  '((box
     :blink-cursor-interval 0.8)
    (box-no-blink
     :blink-cursor-mode -1)
    (bar
     :cursor-type (bar . 2)
     :blink-cursor-interval 0.5)
    (bar-no-other-window
     :inherit bar
     :cursor-in-non-selected-windows nil)
    (underscore
     :cursor-type (hbar . 3)
     :blink-cursor-blinks 50)
    (underscore-thin-other-window
     :inherit underscore
     :cursor-in-non-selected-windows (hbar . 1))
    (t ; the default values
     :cursor-type box
     :cursor-in-non-selected-windows hollow
     :blink-cursor-mode 1
     :blink-cursor-blinks 10
     :blink-cursor-interval 0.2
     :blink-cursor-delay 0.2))
  ;; Omitting the doc string for demo purposes
  )

When called from Lisp, the cursory-set-preset command requires a PRESET argument, such as:

(cursory-set-preset 'bar)

The default behaviour of cursory-set-preset is to change cursors globally. The user can, however, limit the effect to the current buffer. With interactive use, this is done by invoking the command with a universal prefix argument (‘C-u’ by default). When called from Lisp, the LOCAL argument must be non-nil, thus:

(cursory-set-preset 'bar :local)

The function cursory-store-latest-preset is used to save the last selected style in the cursory-latest-state-file. The value can then be restored with the cursory-restore-latest-preset function.

Sample configuration.

Instead of manually storing the latest Cursory preset, users can enable the cursory-mode. It arranges to track the latest preset each time after using cursory-set-preset or Emacs is closed.

• Example hooks after setting a preset

;; Imagine you have a preset where you want minimal cursor styles.
;; You call this `focus' and want when you switch to it to change the
;; cursor color.
(defun my-cursory-change-color ()
"Change to a subtle color when the `focus' Cursory preset is selected."
  (if (eq cursory-last-selected-preset 'focus)
      (set-face-background 'cursor "#999999")
    (face-spec-recalc 'cursor nil)))

(defun my-cursory-change-color-disable-line-numbers ()
  "Disable line numbers if the Cursory preset is `presentation' or `focus'."
  (when (member cursory-last-selected-preset '(presentation focus))
    (display-line-numbers-mode -1)))

2 Installation

• GNU ELPA package
• Manual installation

M-x package-refresh-contents
M-x package-install

cd ~/.emacs.d

# Create a directory for manually-installed packages
mkdir manual-packages

# Go to the new directory
cd manual-packages

# Clone this repo, naming it "cursory"
git clone https://github.com/protesilaos/cursory cursory

;; Make Elisp files in that directory available to the user.
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/manual-packages/cursory")

3 Sample configuration

Remember to read the doc string of each of these variables or functions.

(require 'cursory)

;; Check the `cursory-presets' for how to set your own preset styles.

(setq cursory-latest-state-file (locate-user-emacs-file "cursory-latest-state"))

;; Set last preset or fall back to desired style from `cursory-presets'.
(cursory-set-preset (or (cursory-restore-latest-preset) 'bar))

;; Arrange to keep track of the latest Cursory preset.
(cursory-mode 1)

;; We have to use the "point" mnemonic, because C-c c is often the
;; suggested binding for `org-capture'.
(define-key global-map (kbd "C-c p") #'cursory-set-preset)

4 Acknowledgements

Cursory is meant to be a collective effort. Every bit of help matters.

Author/maintainer

Protesilaos Stavrou.

Contributions to the code or manual

Christopher League, Mehdi Khawari, Nicholas Vollmer, Philip Kaludercic, Stefan Monnier.

5 Also see

The ‘electric-cursor’ package by Case Duckworth lets the user automatically change the cursor style when a certain mode is activated. For example, the box is the default and switches to a bar when overwrite-mode is on: https://github.com/duckwork/electric-cursor.

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ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents

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7 Indices

• Function index
• Variable index
• Concept index