On the same note, I often wonder why the mouse cursor on so many OSes is identical to the one used on the Macintosh[0]. Did they really all just copy what was in the Macintosh System Software, or was there an earlier pioneer of the typical black arrow with a white outline?
Ah yeah but the "tail" on that arrow is much longer! The one I see in Linux and BSDs appears to be literally pixel-for-pixel identical to the Macintosh one, though I haven't exactly done a closeup comparison.
> Ah yeah but the "tail" on that arrow is much longer! The one I see in Linux and BSDs appears to be literally pixel-for-pixel identical to the Macintosh one, though I haven't exactly done a closeup comparison.
They are quite similar, but there's more pixel differences between current Linux/BSD pointers and the Macintosh pointer than there are between the Macintosh pointer than the Alto one (roughly 1 pixel difference).
IOW, Macintosh is closer to the Alto one than it is to the Linux/BSD ones.
To some degree there is only one solution to this problem of arrow cursor design. Vertices, horizontals and 45 degree diagonals render effectively, even on low resolution screens. The arrow head of a mouse cursor consists of: 1 vertical, 1 horizontal, 1 leftward 45 degree diagonal and 1 rightward 45 degree diagonal.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_Mac_OS#/media/File:App...