Re: true transparency

[Tom Gilbert <gilbertt tomgilbert freeserve co uk>]

On Tue, 15 Jun 1999, Ian McKellar wrote:

->On Tue, Jun 15, 1999 at 09:49:58AM -0500, Jamin Philip Gray wrote:
->> 
->> Would it be possible to make the gnome-terminal or Eterm or any
->> program, really, transparent in the true sense of the word--to be
->> able to see exactly what is behind it, not just the background
->> image.  For example, you'd see your gmc icons on your desktop
->> behind it, or an xscreensaver running on the root display, or
->> something, and you'd see windows that are behind it.  Is that
->> possible?
->
->Yes, but probably undesirable. You can use X Shape Extensions to make a window
->any shape (see 'blast' or 'oclock' as examples). One of the features of X
->Shape Extensions is that the focus passes to the window behind where there
->is a hole. If you made the shape of an terminal be its text, then to actually
->be able to type you'd have to have the hotspot of your cursor over a pixel in
->the font you're using :)
->
->The other problem is that X servers aren't designed for doing this (who know
->what will happen now that raster is an XFree86 developer though). My personal
->favourite use of X Shape Extensions is the `wm2' window manager - simple and
->elegant and makes graduitous use of shape extensions.
->
->As an aside I believe that GDK (and hence GTK and GNOME) has Shape support,
->so it shouldn't be _too_ hard to add support to gnome-terminal.
->
->Ian (who is avoiding studying for exams)

I thought the shape extensions were only for the outside of the window?
I know you can have a round window, for example, but I didn't think you
could do a donut shape. Making a shape from the text of a terminal would
therefor be impossible!

If X got alpha support, all those problems would go away, you'd just
declare an area transparent using an alpha channel.

However, I agree that 'true transparency' would be a complete nightmare in
anything other than small, shaped apps. In terminals etc, you'd never be
able to see what was on top of what, or what would get the focus when you
clicked on or hovered over it! It would only lead to brainache!

Don't get me wrong, I use psuedo transparent Eterms all the time, but I'm
sure 'true' transparency would be hell.

-- 
   .------------------------------------------------------------------.
   | Tom Gilbert, England                        pingu@linuxfreak.com |
   | www.tomgilbert.freeserve.co.uk    tom@tomgilbert.freeserve.co.uk |
   |------------------------------------------------------------------|
   | Sites to Visit:                |    .~.                          |
   |     www.freshmeat.net          |    /V\        L  I  N  U  X     |
   |     www.gnome.org              |   // \\   >Beware the Penguin<  |
   |     www.enlightenment.org      |  /(   )\                        |
   |     themes.org                 |   ^^-^^      www.linux.com      |
   `------------------------------------------------------------------'