What is a cursor?

[Flyboyy]

I am confused. I always called the little arrow that indicates where the mouse is located a pointer and
the little vertical line that flashes in front of the last letter (etc) you typed as a cursor or curser.

Wackipedia seems to agree with that assumption;

A blinking text cursor while typing the word Wikipedia.
In computer user interfaces, a cursor is an indicator used to show the current position for user interaction on a computer monitor or other display device that will respond to input from a text input or pointing device.

However Apple does not agree and when I try to make the cursor large in Accessibility/Display "Cursor size: slider, it makes the pointer size vary.

Which leads me to: how do I make the flashing vertical line in front of the last letter I typed larger or change it's shape.
Also dos anyone know why the name confusion?

 

[MightyGem]

The cursor and pointer are one and the same. However, the "flashing vertical line" in a text document is called a carat and generally relates to Font size of the text that is being used. Increase the Font size, and the size of the carat increases.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello,

I have always referred to them as follows:

mouse cursor - onscreen arrow for mouse
text cursor - blinking | symbol or blinking fat/short underscore _ symbol

I think the computer industry adopted the term cursor for the mouse pointer, when the GUI took over from text-based ASCII display.

I don't know of any way to enlarge the blinking cursor, other than MightyGem's suggestion.

C

 

[Flyboyy]

Hmmm.. On my Windows computer "cursor" is as wackipedia shows, a vertical line which in Windoze/Settings/Curser and Pointer Size, you can make thicker and thus easier to see. This is useful when typing and looking away to look at a video etc. in other words when looking back and forth between two programs. As it is right now I have to search around for that vertical line to find it.

On my Windoze computer the "pointer" is an arrow and they give an option to change it's size and colour and inverting the colour when in contact with an object.

I am not used to seeing Windoze be a superior product. I am almost positive that in the past Macs had similar options because I had increased my "Curser" size and even shape as I recall. This may have been an outside app that I d/l

Here is the opening line from Wackipedia which I recognize is not the be-all and end-all of info sources;
"

A blinking text cursor while typing the word Wikipedia.
In computer user interfaces, a cursor is an indicator used to show the current position for user interaction on a computer monitor or other display device that will respond to input from a text input or pointing device. The mouse cursor is also called a pointer,[1] owing to its resemblance in usage to a pointing stick."

The next part of the WP entry is even more explicit as it refers to the vertical hairline on a "slide Rule";
"Origin of the term[edit]
Cursor is Latin for 'runner.' A cursor is the name given to the transparent slide engraved with a hairline that is used for marking a point on a slide rule. The term was then transferred to computers through analogy."

When I went to school and indeed as a pilot, slide rules were commonplace and even now they are used for quick reference and the cursor is indeed a hairline.
http://www.mypilotstore.com/mypilotstore/sep/1207

 

[MightyGem]

And further down that Wikipedia article is:

In most command-line interfaces or text editors, the text cursor, also known as a caret,[2]is an underscore, a solid rectangle, or a vertical line, which may be flashing or steady, indicating where text will be placed when entered (the insertion point).

 

[Flyboyy]

Thanks MightyGem and Cory,
I'd forgotten about the underscore and solid rectangle. That is going way back to DOS and early Macs as I recall.