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1. Embed this notice
   Lucas Pope (dukope@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 03-Jan-2024 23:43:11 JST Lucas Pope

   Whoever designed the Mac pointer hit a home run 40 years ago and it hasn't touched ground yet

   • Doughnut Lollipop 【記録係】:blobfoxgooglymlem: and clacke like this.
   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 04-Jan-2024 03:05:04 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Andreas K
     • Joshua A.C. Newman
     • Chris Silverman 🌻

     @yacc143 @csilverman @JoshuaACNewman @dukope
     This is like hearing somebody complain about how Stevie Wonder ripped off Coolio

   • Embed this notice
     Andreas K (yacc143@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 04-Jan-2024 03:05:05 JST Andreas K

     in reply to

     • Joshua A.C. Newman
     • Chris Silverman 🌻

     @csilverman @JoshuaACNewman @dukope
     Yes, but I did not find any images of the font earlier. X was released mid 1980s, but was based on the W Window System, which on the modern Internet is missing in action.

     |
     | In 1984, Bob Scheifler of MIT replaced the synchronous protocol of W with an asynchronous alternative and named the result X.
     |

     https://lunduke.substack.com/p/w-the-window-system-before-x-that

   • Embed this notice
     Chris Silverman 🌻 (csilverman@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 04-Jan-2024 03:05:06 JST Chris Silverman 🌻

     in reply to

     • Andreas K
     • Joshua A.C. Newman

     @yacc143 @JoshuaACNewman @dukope Going by the alt text of that image, those icons are from X11R3, which came out in 1988. The Apple Lisa came out in 1983, Mac was ’84. (I notice the wristwatch, pencil, i-beam, and spraycan icons are in there too; those were definitely by Susan Kare.)

     Somebody did get some very detailed inspiration from a third party here, but it was not the rotten fruit company.

   • Embed this notice
     Chris Silverman 🌻 (csilverman@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 04-Jan-2024 03:05:07 JST Chris Silverman 🌻

     in reply to

     • Joshua A.C. Newman

     @JoshuaACNewman @dukope I think the Mac pointer came from Lisa. The Lisa pointer is, as far as I can tell, identical to the Mac one. I doubt Kare could have designed it; she was hired in early 1983, and the Lisa UI had been finalized by that point.

     My guess is that the original pointer was designed by Bill Atkinson. He was one of the folks who visited PARC, so he'd seen the Alto pointer, and he also designed the Lisa UI (he invented the menu bar, too) https://www.folklore.org/Rosings_Rascals.html

   • Embed this notice
     Andreas K (yacc143@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 04-Jan-2024 03:05:07 JST Andreas K

     in reply to

     • Joshua A.C. Newman
     • Chris Silverman 🌻

     @csilverman @JoshuaACNewman @dukope
     It also looks surprisingly similar to some characters in the X11 Cursor font.

     Somehow the rotten fruit company always got away with getting very detailed inspirations from 3rd parties.

   • Embed this notice
     Lucas Pope (dukope@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 04-Jan-2024 03:05:11 JST Lucas Pope

     in reply to

     • Joshua A.C. Newman

     @JoshuaACNewman Kare is a personal hero of mine but from what I could dig up (not much), this cursor design narrowly predates her.

   • Embed this notice
     Joshua A.C. Newman (joshuaacnewman@xeno.glyphpress.com)'s status on Thursday, 04-Jan-2024 03:05:11 JST Joshua A.C. Newman

     in reply to

     @dukope Huh. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen her bitmap sketches, but perhaps she was just mapping it out?

     What have you found?

   • Embed this notice
     Joshua A.C. Newman (joshuaacnewman@xeno.glyphpress.com)'s status on Thursday, 04-Jan-2024 03:05:14 JST Joshua A.C. Newman

     in reply to

     @dukope Susan Care.

     Incredibly influential designer.

   • Embed this notice
     Michael Carroll (neffo@mas.to)'s status on Thursday, 04-Jan-2024 14:38:44 JST Michael Carroll

     in reply to

     • Troed Sångberg

     @troed @dukope Hmm, is the Amiga cursor the only 80s cursor that's different (at 45 degrees)?

     (Sorry, as a former Amiga owner I'm still legally required to mention the Amiga when someone says Atari ST.)

     clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Troed Sångberg (troed@ioc.exchange)'s status on Thursday, 04-Jan-2024 14:38:45 JST Troed Sångberg

     in reply to

     @dukope It looks like being pixel perfect the same as in GEM on the Atari ST. I don't know if that was Atari's or Digital Research's implementation though.

   • Embed this notice
     Mark Gardner (mjgardner@social.sdf.org)'s status on Thursday, 04-Jan-2024 14:38:49 JST Mark Gardner

     in reply to

     • Troed Sångberg
     • Michael Carroll

     @neffo @troed @dukope I also carry a torch for the #Amiga, having grown up in #Commodore's backyard in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and owned an #A500. But both the #Workbench 1.x and 2.x-onward default red mouse pointers were garish. probably deliberately so to contrast with the TV-friendly background colors.

     #RetroComputing #CommodoreAmiga

     clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     DeFrisselle ☑️ (defrisselle@mastodon.sdf.org)'s status on Thursday, 04-Jan-2024 14:38:52 JST DeFrisselle ☑️

     in reply to

     • Troed Sångberg
     • Michael Carroll
     • Mark Gardner

     @mjgardner @neffo @troed @dukope

     I changed mine to Red on Windows last month to help find it across three monitors

     I think on the Amiga with the Orange/Blue color scheme was to be more visible and set itself apart I more prefered the Grey/Blue of AOS3

     clacke likes this.