IDLE: add cursor noblink option

[mark-summerfield]

BPO	4630
Nosy	@terryjreedy, @mark-summerfield, @serwy, @rovitotv, @ZackerySpytz, @miss-islington
PRs	bpo-4630: Add cursor no-blink option for IDLE #16960 [3.8] bpo-4630: Add cursor no-blink option for IDLE (GH-16960) #17141 [3.7] bpo-4630: Add cursor no-blink option for IDLE (GH-16960) #17142 bpo-4630: Fix errors in Lib/idlelib/NEWS.txt #21594 [3.9] bpo-4630: Fix errors in Lib/idlelib/NEWS.txt (GH-21594) #21598 [3.8] bpo-4630: Fix errors in Lib/idlelib/NEWS.txt (GH-21594)  #21599
Files	issue_4630.diff issue4630_refreshed.patch

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = 'https://github.com/terryjreedy'
closed_at = <Date 2020-07-23.08:20:12.743>
created_at = <Date 2008-12-11.08:05:53.196>
labels = ['expert-IDLE', 'type-feature', '3.10']
title = 'IDLE: add cursor noblink option'
updated_at = <Date 2020-07-23.08:20:12.742>
user = 'https://github.com/mark-summerfield'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2020-07-23.08:20:12.742>
actor = 'terry.reedy'
assignee = 'terry.reedy'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2020-07-23.08:20:12.743>
closer = 'terry.reedy'
components = ['IDLE']
creation = <Date 2008-12-11.08:05:53.196>
creator = 'mark'
dependencies = []
files = ['13454', '29787']
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 4630
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 24.0
messages = ['77598', '77720', '84056', '84061', '84073', '84074', '84285', '84366', '84371', '84522', '150937', '151045', '186589', '186611', '286494', '355521', '356516', '356517', '356518', '356520', '356521', '374122', '374125', '374128']
nosy_count = 10.0
nosy_names = ['terry.reedy', 'donmez', 'mark', 'gpolo', 'roger.serwy', 'decaf', 'Todd.Rovito', 'bughunter2', 'ZackerySpytz', 'miss-islington']
pr_nums = ['16960', '17141', '17142', '21594', '21598', '21599']
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue4630'
versions = ['Python 3.10']

[mark-summerfield]

IDLE's cursor blinks with Python 3.0 on Linux.

But it shouldn't (and doesn't for prior versions) because in my
.Xdefaults file I have the line:
*insertOffTime: 0

Now I have to manually edit idlelib/EditorWindow.py to stop the cursor
from blinking.
(I also have to do this on Windows because IDLE ignores the blink rate
set in the control panel.)

I am one of a minority of people who cannot work with blinking cursors.
I hope that at the least IDLE will get an option to switch it off.

[mark-summerfield]

Although I stand by my criticism of IDLE not offering the option of
switching off cursor blink, I've now discovered that the problem was
with Fedora 10 no longer executing xrdb .Xdefaults; once I added that
line to my .bash_profile the cursor blinking stopped.

However, that is no help to people using Windows for whom the only
solution is to manually edit the EditorWindow.py file every time they
install a new version of Python.

[decaf]

Would you please share that code with us.

[mark-summerfield]

Py2.6: idlelib/EditorWindow.py

change line 110 from: width=self.width,
to: width=self.width, insertofftime=0,

Py3.0
apply the same change to line 112

This will switch off cursor blink (and annoy people who want cursor
blink). So really instead of setting it to 0 you should set it to a
variable. On Windows the Win32 API has a function you can call to find
out the user's preferred blink rate and you can use that. On Mac OS X
there's no such thing so you would need to add an option to IDLE's
configuration dialog. On Linux the .Xdefaults file should be read and
*insertOffTime respected. But since for Mac you have to add it to the
configuration dialog, it might just be easier to just do that for all
platform a simple [ ] blinking cursor check box would suffice.

[decaf]

Thank you very much. It was a kind of chinese torture.

[mark-summerfield]

Yes, blinking cursors are torture for me too. Fortunately you can switch
them off globally in Windows, and in most cases on Linux (which is what
I use). But not on Mac OS X, and not it seems for Java apps. This site
has some tips: http://www.jurta.org/en/prog/noblink

[gpolo]

Maybe we can agree on the feature being added ? I don't see much use for
controlling how much time the insertion cursor is on and how much time
it is off, but maybe just choosing between blink and no-blink would be
good to have. I would prefer to just get an option inside the "General"
tab that would affect the Text widget creation, instead of depending on
how each platform changes the behaviour.

I personally didn't have any issue with seeing the cursor blinking (I
think I never watched it blinking carefully), but now that you say this
it does annoy me if I watch it :)

[mark-summerfield]

I agree that control of the blink _rate_ isn't needed. I would certainly
welcome a "[X] blinking cursor" checkbox that defaulted to being checked
so that existing behaviour is unchanged, but at the same time offering
an easier solution (i.e., no blinking if the user unchecks & of course
saving and restoring this setting with the other IDLE settings) for
those of us who can't work with cursor blink instead of forcing us to
edit EditWindow.py for every version of Python we install on all our
partitions & machines.

[gpolo]

Here is a patch.

But I'm not feeling comfortable with the option "display":

Cursor blink ( ) No blink ( ) Blink

Those are radiobuttons. If I opted for a checkbutton then it would be
different from everything on the "General" config, still..

[mark-summerfield]

I think a checkbox would be better:
[X] Blinking cursor

or

[X] Cursor blink

but if you use radio buttons you could have:

Cursor blink (*) On ( ) Off

[bughunter2]

I, too, would like to see this as an option in IDLE, as I also find blinking cursors distracting.

I can confirm that tkinter.Text's "insertofftime" option works on Windows as well, so the proposed patch should work on Windows.

[terryjreedy]

The idea and design look good to me. I will test on Windows when I am able to do so in development builds (unless someone beats me ;-).