Re: emacs 24: cursor shape is now i

[Xah Lee]

On May 7, 11:32 am, "Drew Adams" <drew.ad...@oracle.com> wrote:
> > GNU Emacs 24.1.50.1 (i386-mingw-nt6.1.7601) of 2012-04-23 on MARVIN
> > started with -Q.
>
> I tried with this, which is pretty close, if not identical:
>
> In GNU Emacs 24.1.50.1 (i386-mingw-nt5.1.2600)
>  of 2012-04-23 on MARVIN
> Bzr revision: 108006
> agustin.mar...@hispalinux.es-20120423103325-xmra3329elgzhmpc
> Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 5.1.2600
> Configured using:
>  `configure --with-gcc (4.6) --no-opt --enable-checking --cflags
>  -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/libXpm-3.5.8/include
>  -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/libXpm-3.5.8/src
>  -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/libpng-dev_1.4.3-1/include
>  -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/zlib-dev_1.2.5-2/include
>  -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/giflib-4.1.4-1/include
>  -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/jpeg-6b-4/include
>  -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/tiff-3.8.2-1/include
>  -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/gnutls-3.0.9/include
>  -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/libiconv-1.13.1-1-dev/include
>  -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/libxml2-2.7.8/include/libxml2'
>
> > it display cursor as i-beam.
>
> Are you sure you don't mean the mouse pointer?  The cursor (aka text cursor) 
> is
> what indicates point, which is where text gets inserted.
>
> I see the mouse pointer as an I-beam or an arrow, depending on what the mouse 
> is
> over.  But I see the cursor as a box (by default).
>
> > Then, if i paste this
> > (setq cursor-type 'box)
> > evaluate it, it has no effect in the display. (but the variable did
> > get set, verified with describe-variable)
>
> See above.  My crystal ball is trying to tell me that you are looking at the
> mouse pointer but setting the text cursor type.
>
> You change the mouse pointer shape using variable (not an option)
> `x-pointer-shape'.  But I don't think it is possible to change the pointer 
> shape
> on MS Windows.  See (elisp) `Pointer Shape'.

this is very strange. No, it's not mouse pointer.

in summery, the problem went away. The cursor is now the normal solid
box, even if i load ALL my inits. The problem was happening to GNU
Emacs with -Q. Very odd indeed.

here's the interesting part. When trying to reproduce this or research
this in more detail, i actually renamed my .emacs (even i have no
reason to, because i was starting FSF's build of GNU emacs, with -Q,
and was reproducible 100%). But anyway, on a whim i renamed my .emacs.
Then, the problem never showed up, no matter what i do or from what
emacs version, nor showing up when i launch my heavily customized
emacs full.

i think that guy's blog in my previous post has something to do with
it. Certainly a odd problem. Maybe something to do with some lowlevel
rendering/display system on Windows.

Thanks for all the help. I'll report more if it happens again and i
can reproduce it.

 Xah