
spencerjanssen:
On Sun, Sep 13, 2009 at 11:01:39PM -0400, Andres Salomon wrote:
I've noticed that the default root cursor isn't changed from X's default. Is there a reason for this, other than just no one noticing because their display manager overrides it? I've noticed this with nodm. The patch below changes xmonad to override the default cursor.
I'm going to quote part of the FAQ and the homepage:
1 When I start xmonad, nothing happens.
Don't panic, this is expected behavior. XMonad is a minimal window manager, meaning it doesn't set a background, start a status bar, display a splash screen or play a soothing sound effect when it starts up. Once xmonad has started, the only thing it does is listen for your first command.
--
xmonad is minimal. out of the box, no window decorations, no status bar, no icon dock. just clean lines and efficiency.
In the default configuration, xmonad should do the minimum to be a useful window manager and have the essence of xmonad: WM keybindings, keybindings to launch other programs and the defining element of tiling layout algorithms. This principle is a mixture of the Unix philosophy, minimalism, and an effort to cater to power users that generally want tools that stay out of their way.
I think this patch very slightly infringes on each part of that principle. Since it should be fairly easy for our target audience to set their pointer by other means, it seems that the benefit of staying minimal outweighs the benefits of the patch.
While the vision for xmonad's core is to be minimal, contrib is meant to be chock full of any feature we can get our hands on. A module for contrib to set the mouse pointer from startupHook would be very appreciated!
I think this is an excellent summary of the xmonad philosophy. It has perhaps never been stated as clearly, but throughout the design and implementation of the last 3 years, these principles were in mind. Setting the mouse cursor, and all that entails, should be a contrib module. -- Don P.S. bluetile should be a contrib module.