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.

  • @bstix
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    175 months ago

    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

      • @bstix
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        45 months ago

        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.