+++
date = 2021-06-17T20:37:37+02:00
title = "(Un)Blinking cursors"

[taxonomies]
tags = ["TIL"]
+++

Whilst reviewing and discussing [this
patch](https://git.oriole.systems/weltschmerz/commit/?id=0774a46257bdc6daa1c6a1c3485d75bd07ef849c)
for weltschmerz I found out that there actually exists a global property
[`gtk-cursor-blink`](https://developer.gnome.org/gtk3/stable/GtkSettings.html#GtkSettings--gtk-cursor-blink)
that is honoured by all applications that build on GTK.

I don't think I've ever seen this exposed in a settings dialog. Perhaps in the
accessibility settings, I rarely venture there. In any case, you can put
properties like these straight into `~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini` and GTK
apps will pick them up.

For QT apps it seems you can set
[`cursorFlashTime`](https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qapplication.html#cursorFlashTime-prop)
to a negative value in the aptly named `~/.config/Trolltech.conf` but I could
not get this to work with the only QT app that I use, quassel.

Not that I would want to, I do prefer a blinking cursor.