Transparent canvas and floating windows...

cormullion · Post by **cormullion** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 9:56 pm

A canvas needs a background colour if tagged objects are to get deleted properly, but you can only get transparent windows if you omit the background colour. So does this mean that I can't draw onto transparent windows and expect to be able to delete tags as well?

Another question: on MacOS X I can have floating windows - that float above other windows - is there a way to do this with gs:windows?

Lutz · Post by **Lutz** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 11:55 pm

So does this mean that I can't draw onto transparent windows and expect to be able to delete tags as well?

unfortunately you can't. There is a technique to "undraw" objects using complementary color bits in Java, but this is not supported in guiserver.jar.

... floating windows - that float above other windows ...

yes, you can have that. In the newlisp-edit application (the newLISP GS GUI) there are instances where a second window is created floating above the editor; e.g. Edit/Find (applekey-F) creates a second window. Use either gs:frame or gs:dialog (always on top of parent frame).

cormullion · Post by **cormullion** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 4:34 pm

Thanks! I really wanted the window to float above other applications, too, but I don't think that's possible...

I've been looking for hours for a simple MacOS X app that just displays a big floating window in the middle of the screen with big writing that you can set by a simple bit of script... Apparently no such app has been written...!

Lutz · Post by **Lutz** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 4:42 pm

well, you could have text and change/redraw it on a transparent window. See the file "frameless-demo.lsp" accessible from the "Help/Open Demo Folder" menu option. Or in a terminal window do:

Code: Select all

newlisp /usr/share/newlisp/guiserver/frameless-demo.lsp

didn't this come from you?

So while you cannot move other objects around on a transparent window, you can have changing text.

cormullion · Post by **cormullion** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 7:40 pm

I've been using canvasses so I'm deleting/redrawing them. I'll try with text objects...

Still want 'float above everything else' though...!