Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Applications > Beachball 1.5 - now with arrow cursors!

Beachball 1.5 - now with arrow cursors!
Thread Tools
Phoenix1701
Senior User
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 9, 2002, 02:09 PM
 
Beachball 1.5 is released! New features:
  • Beachball can now change your arrow cursor as well as your wait cursor, and can do both at once (you can change each one independently of the other without reverting the other one to default)!
  • Added a nifty translucent shadowed arrow cursor for non-Quartz Extreme Macs.
  • Added a rather less nifty Windows-esque cursor for both QE an non-QE Macs. More cursors will be forthcoming.
  • Removed the Simple Blob cursor, which was corrupt and causing patch errors (even in other cursors) for some people. These errors should now be fixed. Simple Blob may return in a future release.
  • Changed the layout of the Cursors folder to allow for arrow cursors. Note that the new layout is not compatible with older versions of Beachball.
  • Added a �Revert All� button to return all cursors to the Apple defaults.
  • Changed the setup assistant text to better convey that a separate backup file must be located only if the original CoreGraphics file is currently modified.
  • Changed the patch error message again to be more accurate.
  • Rewrote and simplified the cursor patching code. There is now even better error handling, and you may notice a slight speed increase.
  • Beachball now manually cleans up after itself in the Temporary Items folder, rather than waiting for an automatic purge.
  • Several other minor cosmetic changes.

In general, I think you'll find this is a very good update. I think there may be one small bug when trying to patch files after using Revert All (it just gives you an error message; relaunching Beachball will fix it), so I'll likely be releasing a maintenance release soon too. It's very cool seeing a shadowed cursor without QE, by the way. And just so no one accuses me of stealing cursors, I made that arrow, and the Windows one, myself. And yes, it works under millions of colors.
     
unfaded
Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Pitzer College, Claremont, CA
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 9, 2002, 09:13 PM
 
I can't patch me cursors, the following error when trying to do the nifty shadowed cursor:

% patch --verbose /private/tmp/501/Temporary Items/CoreGraphics.bak /Library/Cursors/Arrows/Shadowed Arrow/shadowedarrow.diff

Hmm... Looks like a normal diff to me...
Patching file '/private/tmp/501/Temporary Items/CoreGraphics.bak' using Plan A...
Hunk #1 FAILED at 1.
Hunk #2 succeeded at 4081.
Hunk #3 FAILED at 4254.
Hunk #4 FAILED at 4257.
Hunk #5 FAILED at 4427.
4 out of 5 hunks FAILED -- saving rejects to file '/private/tmp/501/Temporary Items/CoreGraphics.bak.rej'
done


Hunk - is that ACTUALLY a technical term? That's great...
     
unfaded
Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Pitzer College, Claremont, CA
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 10, 2002, 01:28 AM
 
Originally posted by unfaded:
I can't patch me cursors, the following error when trying to do the nifty shadowed cursor:

% patch --verbose /private/tmp/501/Temporary Items/CoreGraphics.bak /Library/Cursors/Arrows/Shadowed Arrow/shadowedarrow.diff

Hmm... Looks like a normal diff to me...
Patching file '/private/tmp/501/Temporary Items/CoreGraphics.bak' using Plan A...
Hunk #1 FAILED at 1.
Hunk #2 succeeded at 4081.
Hunk #3 FAILED at 4254.
Hunk #4 FAILED at 4257.
Hunk #5 FAILED at 4427.
4 out of 5 hunks FAILED -- saving rejects to file '/private/tmp/501/Temporary Items/CoreGraphics.bak.rej'
done


Hunk - is that ACTUALLY a technical term? That's great...
Actually - it DID patch, which is even more scary, because it specifically told me it DIDN'T patch. Ouch.

However, the cursor looks better than the un-shadowed, but I still hope for the more-shadowed QE-like one. However, it's a middle ground for now :o)
( Last edited by unfaded; Oct 10, 2002 at 03:52 AM. )
     
diskobolos
Forum Regular
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: San Francisco
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 10, 2002, 02:42 AM
 
The setup thing is still needlessly confusing. It should just be two steps.. have you modified your cursor? yes/no, if no continue app, if yes do you have a backup? yes/no, if no give instructions, if yes user finds the backup.

I tell it yes I've modified with blobber and it says uh oh and tells me to quit. So the first option doesn't even work for me and the others are just redundant, "I've changed my cursor but my dog ate the backup, I've changed my cursor but someone broke into my house and stole the backup, I've changed my cursor but I spilled orange juice on the backup..." the only real question is does the user have a backup or not.

The previews still seem to run too fast.

And is there anyway that you could show the user what the current cursor in coregraphics is? I may have switched my cursor a couple days ago but haven't restarted, it would be helpful if beachball could preview what's what.
( Last edited by diskobolos; Oct 10, 2002 at 02:54 AM. )
     
Krypton
Mac Elite
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Cambridge UK
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 10, 2002, 12:44 PM
 
The link provided doesn't seem to work anymore, I get an 'IO error' from Stuffit 6.5 and an error -39 from disk copy - this is after downloading it with 3 diferent apps.
     
Adam Betts
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: North Hollywood, CA
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 10, 2002, 01:59 PM
 
I never changed cursor before...

I installed Beachball...

Want QE-like mouse, installed it...

Got dialog saying that it cannot patch because it has been modified.

WTF is going on?
     
Phoenix1701  (op)
Senior User
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 10, 2002, 03:06 PM
 
Whew. Okay. Lots of stuff to answer here... first of all, Krypton, I think the problem is just that you got a corrupt download... try downloading it again, that should fix that problem. Secondly, diskobolos, point taken. I'll see what I can do about simplifying the setup assistant some more. As for telling it you've modified it with Blobber, you must have selected the "...but forgot to make a backup" option.
There's really no way to display the cursor you're currently using in CoreGraphics without writing half of Photoshop into the program, so I don't think that feature's going to emerge any time soon...
I set the previews to run about as fast as they actually do when they're used in the system. Of course, although I specified a time interval between frames that's in milliseconds, it's not entirely implausible that it depends on your machine speed. YMMV.
Adam Betts, there is no error message in Beachball that complains because a file has been modified... is it the sort of error unfaded pasted a few posts ago? Also, logout and make sure it actually truly didn't work; I'm beginning to think (due to a few reports like unfaded's) that that error message may be, er, erroneous.

And if all else fails, try downloading the update... I fixed a few bugs, and that might've been one of the ones I got.
     
a-poria
Forum Regular
Join Date: Mar 2001
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 10, 2002, 04:37 PM
 
i keep getting an error message when trying to change the arrow cursor. when i log out to see if it worked anyway, i still am met with the default arrow. by the way, using 1.5.1. any suggestions?

EDIT: tried downloading ver. 1.5.0 and it worked. however, this time i put it in Applications, not Utilities. would this make a difference?
( Last edited by a-poria; Oct 10, 2002 at 04:46 PM. )
     
AU_student_iceBook
Senior User
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Indiana
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 10, 2002, 05:26 PM
 
Phoenix1701-
I'm having some trouble's with errors and Beachball. Any suggestions?
Here a pic:


This is what the error message said:
% patch --verbose /private/tmp/501/Temporary Items/CoreGraphics.bak /Library/Cursors/Arrows/Shadowed Arrow/shadowedarrow.diff

Hmm... Looks like a normal diff to me...
Patching file '/private/tmp/501/Temporary Items/CoreGraphics.bak' using Plan A...
Hunk #1 FAILED at 1.
Hunk #2 succeeded at 4081.
Hunk #3 succeeded at 4254.
Hunk #4 succeeded at 4257.
Hunk #5 succeeded at 4427.
1 out of 5 hunks FAILED -- saving rejects to file '/private/tmp/501/Temporary Items/CoreGraphics.bak.rej'
done
(256)

Thanks!
     
Phoenix1701  (op)
Senior User
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 10, 2002, 08:42 PM
 
Sorry, the problem changing to Shadowed Arrow is my fault... the diff only seems to work on some CoreGraphics files, and not on others. Obviously the other cursor authors figured out how not to make this happen, since all the other cursors seem to work... if anyone has any idea how to fix this, let me know. Otherwise, I'll try remaking that cursor and see if that diff works, since I have managed to reproduce the error on my roommate's computer.

Interestingly, though, for most people four out of five "hunks" fail... it appears only one is failing for you. Definitely seems like proof that not all CoreGraphics files are the same...
     
ARENA
Mac Elite
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: .CL
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 10, 2002, 08:45 PM
 
It works perfectly for me. Now i have a cool shadowed cursor in my Pismo
Thanks Phoenix, Beachball's great.
     
AU_student_iceBook
Senior User
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Indiana
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 10, 2002, 10:47 PM
 
Phoenix-
I have restarted serveral times since my last post, and for some reason on this last startup...I booted up wiht both a changed cursor and blob. So, it worked, but in a very weird way.
Seems like there are still bugs...but thanks for your work.
     
Phoenix1701  (op)
Senior User
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 12, 2002, 04:02 AM
 
Most of you probably already noticed, but I fixed the shadowed arrow cursor. Versiontracker's now listing Beachball as 1.5.1r2, since it's still the same program, just a fixed cursor. If you don't feel like waiting for the entire program to re-download, just grab the new cursor here (5K).
     
   
 
Forum Links
Forum Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Top
Privacy Policy
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 10:38 PM.
All contents of these forums © 1995-2017 MacNN. All rights reserved.
Branding + Design: www.gesamtbild.com
vBulletin v.3.8.8 © 2000-2017, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.,