Why is the caret made, and why does it blink?

weebkent@ani.social to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 29 points –

It's the vertical line that blinks in text boxes and documents when you edit. Other than that I don't know much about it.

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It's called a cursor.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursor_(user_interface)

Cursor is Latin for 'runner'. A cursor is a name given to the transparent slide engraved with a hairline used to mark a point on a slide rule. The term was then transferred to computers through analogy

"Caret" is also correct, and more specific, since "Cursor" can also mean the mouse cursor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caret_navigation

Yes , the link I provided also explains the etymology of "mouse". In short, the invention of a free moving cursor was initially called a "bug", but since the caret cursor was also called a "cat" they called it mouse. The first mouse pointers were operated by trackballs, so the physical device didn't resemble a mouse until later.

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