Re: [MiNT] MiNT +problem with background in Teradesk

["Jo Even Skarstein" <joska@online.no>]

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From: "Paul Wratt" <paul.wratt@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 19, 2010 10:08 AM
To: "mint" <mint@lists.fishpool.fi>
Subject: Re: [MiNT] MiNT +problem with background in Teradesk

> > > in the same spirit, it should also be possible to provide a window
> > > background texture where white is not drawn in to the window
> >
> > Wow. Exactly how would you accomplish that? How will you know when to 
> > draw white, and when to draw a textured background?
> >
> > -- PeP
>
> by starting with providing a window region that already has a texture
> in it (before drawing begins). Then looking at how vdi/aes draws
> objects, and (if code is available) how others are doing textures
> currently (XaAES)

You need to study how the AES works. Because what you describe won't work. 
The reason is very simple: The AES doesn't know anything about what happens 
inside a window's work area, and the VDI doesn't know anything about 
windows. So basically there is no way the AES can know what apps are doing 
inside the window's work area.

> drawing of transparency (or not drawing objects) is possible according
> to some apps I have seen. They were bugs in the window redraw, but

Examples?

> they showed it was possible for an area of the window to allow the
> underneath to be seen, which proves it is possible. "how" is a
> different matter entirely, but some examination will shed light on it.

I explained this to you about a year ago. It won't work unless you change 
the way the AES and VDI works. The problem is that there is nothing beneath 
a window - if a window (including the desktop) is (partially) covered, the 
owning app is never told to redraw the work area so there is nothing to see 
through the window that covers it. It's that simple. The best you can do is 
to see the underlying window frames through the top window frames.

> It is my belief that the above two principle would allow for
> non-standard window shape to be drawn (still within the window
> rectangle).

It won't.

> Off the top of my head, using a (large) icon might provide a quick
> solution (instead of textures)

A solution to what?

Jo Even