diff -ur ratpoison/configure.in ratpoison-visualrat/configure.in
--- ratpoison/configure.in	Wed Mar 14 08:42:17 2001
+++ ratpoison-visualrat/configure.in	Wed Apr 25 14:27:08 2001
@@ -39,6 +39,18 @@
 		AC_MSG_RESULT(no)
 	fi],[AC_MSG_RESULT(no)])
 
+dnl by default turn off visible rat
+AC_MSG_CHECKING(whether to enable visible rat)
+AC_ARG_ENABLE(visual-rat,
+	[  --enable-visual-rat      change the cursor to indicate whenever waiting for commands],
+	[if test "x$enableval" != "xno"; then
+		AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(VISUALRAT, 1, Define this to enable visual rat)
+	 	AC_MSG_RESULT(yes)
+		CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -g"
+	else
+		AC_MSG_RESULT(no)
+	fi],[AC_MSG_RESULT(no)])
+
 AC_ARG_WITH(xterm, [ --with-xterm=PROG        set the x terminal emulator used by ratpoison ],
 term_prog=$withval, term_prog="xterm")
 AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(TERM_PROG,"$term_prog")
diff -ur ratpoison/src/events.c ratpoison-visualrat/src/events.c
--- ratpoison/src/events.c	Mon Apr 16 09:45:58 2001
+++ ratpoison-visualrat/src/events.c	Wed Apr 25 14:08:12 2001
@@ -323,6 +323,7 @@
     }
 }
 
+#ifdef VISUALRAT
 static void
 grab_rat ()
 {
@@ -336,6 +337,7 @@
 {
   XUngrabPointer (dpy, CurrentTime);
 }
+#endif
 
 static void
 handle_key (screen_info *s)
@@ -359,7 +361,9 @@
 
   /* Change the mouse icon to indicate to the user we are waiting for
      more keystrokes */
+#ifdef VISUALRAT
   grab_rat();
+#endif
 
   read_key (&keysym, &mod, NULL, 0);
 
@@ -384,8 +388,9 @@
 
       free (msg);
     }
-
+#ifdef VISUALRAT 
   ungrab_rat();
+#endif
 }
 
 void