Re: Animated cursors in OSX

FROM : Hans Larsen
DATE : Fri Jun 27 17:47:58 2008

Hello both of you,

A bit of context, since you seem to assume my app is perfect Cocoa.

The app works under Linux and Windows, and is ported to OSX in Carbon, 
with the old ReceiveNextEvent / SendEventToEventTarget( ..., 
GetEventDispatcherTarget() ) loop done manually (very Classic), 
because of time constraints we had at first.
Up to this week, they wanted their own animated cursor, like in 
Windows (.ani) or Linux (.xcursor). I know about the Human Interface 
Guidelines. I know how to design and build a Cocoa application. No 
needs to remind me all of this. Please don't assume stupidity from 
mediocrity ;) I'm not up for a debate on wether Apple, Linux or 
Microsoft is right or wrong on ways of doing things. I prefer the OSX 
way, but when you design code based on Linux/Windows, and then need to 
port to OSX in a very short time, some shortcuts must be made.

To answer your inquiry, we continue to get events and manage them, 
even when the application is "not-responsive" to the user, so we can't 
use the default OSX behavior to display the spinning ball. This is 
wicked, I know.

The client is aware of the constraints/problems. We told them 
everything (from no-64bits-in-carbon to shouldn't-use-custom-cursors). 
They have the last say.

Thanks again for your concerns. :) I don't mind continuing the talk if 
you have ideas to bring, but I'd appreciate it off the list.
Hans

On 27-Jun-08, at 10:45 AM, Christiaan Hofman wrote:

> Wow, that's the worst you could ever do (apart from crashing)! I 
> advice you should urge your client to reconsider this decision. The 
> spinning ball cursor is a system cursor that should be used for one 
> purpose only (for an unresponsive app, if that's not clear) and 
> exclusively by the system. Any other use is a bug. Tell your client 
> that it's a bad idea to introduce a bug in an app on purpose.
>
> Christiaan
>
> On 27 Jun 2008, at 4:35 PM, Hans Larsen wrote:
>

>> Alright.  Thanks to everyone for this help. The client finally 
>> decided to go with the spinning ball cursor instead.
>>
>> Thanks again, this was much appreciated.
>> H
>>
>> On 21-Jun-08, at 8:03 PM, Scott Stevenson wrote:
>>

>>>
>>> On Jun 21, 2008, at 6:19 AM, Georg Seifert wrote:
>>>

>>>> There are some Programms using custom animated cursors. I 
>>>> remember Photoshop (a watch with turning arms) and Fetch (the 
>>>> running dog).

>>>
>>> Both of those started way back in Mac OS 7 (or earlier). It's 
>>> certainly discouraged now.
>>>
>>>  - Scott
>>>

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> On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 7:35 AM, Hans Larsen <<email_removed>> 
> wrote:

>> Alright.  Thanks to everyone for this help. The client finally 
>> decided to go
>> with the spinning ball cursor instead.

>
> You should "never" display that yourself. In fact if a customer sees
> that they will likely think something may be wrong with the software.
> You simply should not display progress using the mouse cursor. It
> should be displayed using something like a spinner, progress bar, etc.
> in an aspect of your user interface.
>
> -Shawn
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