QD for Basic and other editors

[BSJR]

BSJR posted:-Finding the right mix of background and cursor colour can be a challenge as the latter seems to be fixed in QD and doesn't change with the System Sprites.

Are you suggesting that the colour of QD's cursor can not be changed or that it is difficult to do?

Derek posted:- QD will use tge WMAN2 colour setup, which can be changed in a boot file.
Documentation on this is very sparse, but Marcel did two files with QPC2 to show how to change the colours in a GD2 environment.

Are you willing to elaborate?
Where can I find the two files?

F9 can be used in QD after a Search/Replace text is entered, to find the next occurrence.
I use it often to step trough a text and confirm or skip each replacement. It is this particular menu that is faulty, giving me a red prompt on grey paper that is very hard to read.

I have Marcel's System Sprites loaded which includes a flashing cursor that I found too light and hard to see on white paper. So I made a darker version. QD is the one program that doesn't benefit and keeps its own colour.
A Cursor item is also missing from the System Palette for WMAN2, neither is there a Cursor colour option in QD's config.

BSJR

[dilwyn]

There is some documentation on the system palette colour schemes and using different sprites on this page: https://www.dilwyn.theqlforum.com/gd2/index.html

Most were magazine articles originally.

I don't use QD very often so I don't know if, for example, it has inbuilt palettes overriding what installed colour themes do.

I don't know for sure, I suspect from its behaviour that the QD cursor is a sprite rather than a simple cursor.

In some programs, simple cursors are an xor of a paper colour with something, eg basic might be paper colour xor'ed with a few bits of white, so you get a red cursor in mode 4 on a black background. It becomes harder with gd2 colours - try Ralf's gd2 version of S-edit and you'll see a cyan cursor on grey which is hard to see on my PC monitor.

[RalfR]

try Ralf's gd2 version of S-edit and you'll see a cyan cursor on grey which is hard to see on my PC monitor.

Seems to depend on the system colours you have set. Here I have a golden cursor (colourway as MK's demo WIN).

SC.jpg (2.74 KiB) Viewed 1639 times

[dilwyn]

Ralf - strange, I use Marcel's colourway too, yet I get a cyan cursor. Wonder if there's a difference between the one I have (originally from Marcel's web page) and the one you have from the demo win?

[RalfR]

The "syssprites", which he loads at line 510 of his BOOT makes the changes. Even QD then has a "golden" cursor, which makes me assume, that the cursor in QD isn't hard coded.

If I omit that, I have the standard red Cursor in #0 and an annoying cyan colour (like you) in S_Edit . But also the QD cursor then has this colour.

[pjw]

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F9 can be used in QD after a Search/Replace text is entered, to find the next occurrence.
I use it often to step trough a text and confirm or skip each replacement. It is this particular menu that is faulty, giving me a red prompt on grey paper that is very hard to read.

I vaguely seem to recall something like this, but this was a bug and should now be fixed. Are you sure you have the latest QD? Mine says: VB.07, 05.08.2020

I have Marcel's System Sprites loaded which includes a flashing cursor that I found too light and hard to see on white paper. So I made a darker version. QD is the one program that doesn't benefit and keeps its own colour.
A Cursor item is also missing from the System Palette for WMAN2, neither is there a Cursor colour option in QD's config.

BSJR

I dont recognise your version of QD. Mine doesnt do any of those things and has a golden flashing cursor. Admittedly I use the default palette, with black text on gray paper and havent really tried any other for many years.

The only two remaining bugs Im aware of are the "creeping last line bug", and that it sometimes looses touch with the end of the document. These rarely get in the way and are easy to work around when they do.

[dilwyn]

The "syssprites", which he loads at line 510 of his BOOT makes the changes. Even QD then has a "golden" cursor, which makes me assume, that the cursor in QD isn't hard coded.

If I omit that, I have the standard red Cursor in #0 and an annoying cyan colour (like you) in S_Edit . But also the QD cursor then has this colour.

Ah, that explains it. I had syssprites REM'ed out for some reason in my boot program. The golden cursor is much easier to read in S_Edit.

Part of my BOOT

colourways.jpg (11.45 KiB) Viewed 1605 times

Cyan cursor

cyancursor.jpg (2.32 KiB) Viewed 1605 times

In case anyone is wondering what we're talking about, get these files from https://www.kilgus.net/smsqe/gd2-high-colour/, under the My Window Manager Theme section.

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

Is it possible to configure the colour of the cursor?

[RalfR]

Is it possible to configure the colour of the cursor?

I am not sure, I haven't found a keyword in the various docs, where just the cursur can be changed. On MK's site, there is a fading cursor just to LRESPR, but this is not, what would be needful, as it changes the cursor in the complete machine.

For QD, that isn't a problem (as long as you like that the cursor is in the whole machine), for individual SB programs it is.

[BSJR]

Hi,

Is it possible to configure the colour of the cursor?

The M. Kilgus cursor is a sprite so in fact an image, to change the colour you must change the pattern.
That's what I did to make it darker, I edited the _asm, recompiled and added a CURSPRLOAD in my BOOT.
Strangely this does change the cursor in Basic and most of the other jobs but not for my QDs (v8.07).

BSJR