On 18:40 17 Jan 2003, Andy Arbon <andy_at_andrewarbon.co.uk> wrote:
[...]
| I'm guessing the answer to this is no, but can the window manager make
| an application's window transparent, or would it be the responsibility
| of the individual application to support transparency?
The app has to do it. X11 itself doesn't really do transparency
(unless it has something like the XRender extension), so apps
do stuff like sniffing the root window's pixmap and so forth.
| What are the performance implications of using transparency effects? I
| like to make things look as nice as possible, but only as long as it
| doesn't have a bad impact on getting 'proper' work done.
It costs a fair bit of memory. Usually the X server has to keep the app's
background window in memory (because it's often a tinted copy of the root
pixmap, or a relocated copy because the app's top left isn't the root's
top left). But unless you move windows around a lot the performance is
ok - the server just blits the background and draws the other app stuff
on top. Example: I run transparent terminals on a 200 meg laptop here -
scrolling and editing and stuff are just fine. Moving or resizing a
window, however, has a hit as the app refetches and hacks the backdrop.
--
Cameron Simpson, DoD#743 cs_at_zip.com.au http://www.zip.com.au/~cs/
I have a flawless philosophical and scientific model of reality.
Unfortunately, it's actual size. We must never be dogmatic. Anyone
who says otherwise is wrong. Will betray country for food. Annoy the
censors -- mention Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka in your .signature.
- studly_at_eris.cs.umb.edu (Kevin W. McAuley)
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Received on Sat Jan 18 2003 - 20:57:55 GMT