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What
is a Resource?
The
article in MacAddict
Magazine
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Cursor
Resources
CURS&emdash;The first Mac
cursor, just plain old
black-and-white.
crsr&emdash;A newer, color
cursor that's only rarely used in
programs. However, hackers with an eye for
color can replace the CURS with a crsr
with the same ID, and the Mac will
automatically use the color one.
acur&emdash;An animated
cursor that's really just a list of many
CURS's (or crsr's) to define a sequence of
animation.
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The
cursor works hard. When you move it over text, it becomes an
I-beam. When you're forced to wait, it transmogrifies into a
wristwatch to let you know you'll have to wait. It can even
shape-shift itself into a pencil or magnifying glass to show
you what action to expect when you click the mouse in other
programs. All of this work and only three types of cursor
references to get the jobs done.
This should give you a pretty good understanding of how
to edit the cursor types. There is also a color cursor
(crsr) -- editing it is just like editing the CURS resource
-- only in color of course. Give it a try -- have fun!
Replacing the CURS with a
crsr (Color Cursor) is generally not a great idea. It
will usually work, but due to some complexities with the
MacOS it may cause a minor increase in instability.
The reason (for the few geeks
that care) is because the black and white SetCursor()
routine is safe to call it any time (memory management
wise) -- the color version of this routine, SetCCursor(),
is not. Most Apps should pay attention to this, and work
right -- but you are gambling. Some Apps have problems
with this (I hear that Phososhop doesn't like it, which
would make sense since it uses its own Memory Management
scheme). I wouldn't risk the stability problems myself,
but problems with it are probably very rare.
~ Thanks to Doc for pointing
this out.
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