Any Way to Keep the Cursor from Blinking?

MarjaE · 03-21-2017, 12:27 AM

I have a strobe sensitivity, among other disabilities.

I can't find any info on how to disable blinking cursors in Sigil. Is there any way to do that on the Mac?

I use app-specific settings to disable blinking cursors in Firefox and Thunderbird. I use a terminal hack to disable blinking cursors in NSText applications, but this doesn't work in Webkit applications, unless they have app-specific settings. I can't disable blinking cursors in LibreOffice, so I mostly use NeoOffice instead.

KevinH · 03-21-2017, 10:22 AM

I don't think so on the Mac. I do not think setting the cursor blink rate is a system level setting in OSX. I know you can with windows and Linux by changing the system setting. I will look into this.

AnemicOak · 03-21-2017, 10:30 AM

This may be of some use...
http://lifehacker.com/change-your-ma...nal-1670363052

KevinH · 03-21-2017, 12:58 PM

That set of terminal commands will only work on official Mac apps from Apple and other code that uses the official Mac gui toolkit. Sigil is a cross-platform Qt app.

Qt looks for a system setting in Linux when running gtk3, and in Windows settings to determine how to set the cursor blink rate, but will not even look at all on Mac OS X since Mac OS X does not have an official user setting for it.

On Qt, this setting is called cursorFlashTime.

I will add a Sigil setting to allow users to set that value (set it to something negative to stop all blinking) in a future release. Our Sigil tree is currently locked against changes that will need translations in preparation for our upcoming Sigil 0.9.8 release which should be made quite soon now.

So look for something in Sigil 0.9.9 (not the upcoming Sigil 0.9.8) in a few months to allow you to control that on Mac OSX.

This really is a deficiency in Accessibility Settings under Mac OS X given a user setting exists on all other platforms.

Thanks for your bug report.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

This may be of some use...
http://lifehacker.com/change-your-ma...nal-1670363052

MarjaE · 03-21-2017, 04:28 PM

Thank you. That'll be very helpful.

KevinH · 03-28-2017, 12:14 PM

For the record, I just committed the following change to Sigil in master:

https://github.com/Sigil-Ebook/Sigil...820bc5b78015cc

So when Sigil 0.9.9 comes out, it will include support for using an environment variable to disable all text cursor blinking inside Codeview in Sigil.

export SIGIL_DISABLE_CURSOR_BLINK=True

I have tested this in my own builds and it seems to work.

If you are a heavy user of Sigil on the Mac and are in desperate need of this feature, please let me know and I will privately post an OSX build for you to use until the next release is made.

Doitsu · 03-29-2017, 05:24 PM

@KevinH: FYI: I just tested your latest commit on my Arch Linux machine and SIGIL_DISABLE_CURSOR_BLINK worked.

KevinH · 03-29-2017, 05:51 PM

Hi Doitsu,

Thanks for testing it! Any gtk3 theme using desktop on Linux (and possibly other Linux Desktops) should have a setting somewhere for cursor blink that Qt will inherit and use. Ditto for Windows as Qt should inherit the system settings. Unfortunately on OSX there is no system setting that Qt will inherit.

This environment variable should work on all platforms but should only be truly needed on Mac OSX as users of all other systems should be able to control this easier from their system settings.

So your Linux system, is there a way to control the cursor blink rate at the Desktop/system level and does Qt properly use it? Or do you need to use this environment variable?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doitsu

@KevinH: FYI: I just tested your latest commit on my Arch Linux machine and SIGIL_DISABLE_CURSOR_BLINK worked.

Doitsu · 03-29-2017, 06:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevinH

So your Linux system, is there a way to control the cursor blink rate at the Desktop/system level and does Qt properly use it?

I'm using OpenBox, which is a minimalist, no-frills window manager. AFAIK, it doesn't have any built-in cursor blink rate options.

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevinH

Or do you need to use this environment variable?

There might be a KDE/Gnome/Xfce based system utility that I could use, but I didn't investigate this further, since setting SIGIL_DISABLE_CURSOR_BLINK worked just fine.

KevinH · 03-29-2017, 06:21 PM

So it will be useful to at least some Linux users.

That is good to know! Thanks

KevinH · 04-10-2017, 01:56 PM

Hi MarjaE,

A new Mac build with this Accessibility Feature added has now been posted since I had run into other problems in the Sigil-0.9.8 release binary for Mac.

Feel free to grab the latest release and we can show you how to set the environment variable to disable cursor blinking either each time you launch Sigil or more permanently by adding it to your .bash_profile file.

export SIGIL_DISABLE_CURSOR_BLINK=True

MarjaE · 04-15-2017, 04:25 PM

Thanks. I can see the 0.9.8 version but not the current not-yet-0.9.9 version.

DiapDealer · 04-15-2017, 04:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarjaE

Thanks. I can see the 0.9.8 version but not the current not-yet-0.9.9 version.

The Mac 0.9.8 version has been replaced with the new build. There is no 0.9.9 release.

KevinH · 04-15-2017, 05:02 PM

The newly updated Sigil-0.9.8-Mac-Package.dmg is on the releases and it is the one you want.

03-21-2017, 12:27 AM	#1
MarjaE Guru Posts: 930 Karma: 53902736 Join Date: Jun 2015 Device: multiple	Any Way to Keep the Cursor from Blinking? I have a strobe sensitivity, among other disabilities. I can't find any info on how to disable blinking cursors in Sigil. Is there any way to do that on the Mac? I use app-specific settings to disable blinking cursors in Firefox and Thunderbird. I use a terminal hack to disable blinking cursors in NSText applications, but this doesn't work in Webkit applications, unless they have app-specific settings. I can't disable blinking cursors in LibreOffice, so I mostly use NeoOffice instead.

03-28-2017, 12:14 PM	#6
KevinH Sigil Developer Posts: 8,244 Karma: 5450818 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: many	For the record, I just committed the following change to Sigil in master: https://github.com/Sigil-Ebook/Sigil...820bc5b78015cc So when Sigil 0.9.9 comes out, it will include support for using an environment variable to disable all text cursor blinking inside Codeview in Sigil. export SIGIL_DISABLE_CURSOR_BLINK=True I have tested this in my own builds and it seems to work. If you are a heavy user of Sigil on the Mac and are in desperate need of this feature, please let me know and I will privately post an OSX build for you to use until the next release is made. Last edited by KevinH; 03-28-2017 at 12:20 PM.

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03-21-2017, 10:22 AM	#2
KevinH Sigil Developer Posts: 8,244 Karma: 5450818 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: many	I don't think so on the Mac. I do not think setting the cursor blink rate is a system level setting in OSX. I know you can with windows and Linux by changing the system setting. I will look into this.

03-21-2017, 10:30 AM	#3
AnemicOak Bookaholic Posts: 14,391 Karma: 54969924 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Minnesota Device: iPad Mini 4, AuraHD, iPhone XR +	This may be of some use... http://lifehacker.com/change-your-ma...nal-1670363052

03-21-2017, 04:28 PM	#5
MarjaE Guru Posts: 930 Karma: 53902736 Join Date: Jun 2015 Device: multiple	Thank you. That'll be very helpful.

03-29-2017, 05:24 PM	#7
Doitsu Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,645 Karma: 23456789 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: Kindle PW2	@KevinH: FYI: I just tested your latest commit on my Arch Linux machine and SIGIL_DISABLE_CURSOR_BLINK worked.

03-29-2017, 06:21 PM	#10
KevinH Sigil Developer Posts: 8,244 Karma: 5450818 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: many	So it will be useful to at least some Linux users. That is good to know! Thanks

04-10-2017, 01:56 PM	#11
KevinH Sigil Developer Posts: 8,244 Karma: 5450818 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: many	Hi MarjaE, A new Mac build with this Accessibility Feature added has now been posted since I had run into other problems in the Sigil-0.9.8 release binary for Mac. Feel free to grab the latest release and we can show you how to set the environment variable to disable cursor blinking either each time you launch Sigil or more permanently by adding it to your .bash_profile file. export SIGIL_DISABLE_CURSOR_BLINK=True

04-15-2017, 04:25 PM	#12
MarjaE Guru Posts: 930 Karma: 53902736 Join Date: Jun 2015 Device: multiple	Thanks. I can see the 0.9.8 version but not the current not-yet-0.9.9 version.

04-15-2017, 05:02 PM	#14
KevinH Sigil Developer Posts: 8,244 Karma: 5450818 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: many	The newly updated Sigil-0.9.8-Mac-Package.dmg is on the releases and it is the one you want.

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