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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: the germ of an idea
From:       Chris Lee <nytehorse () inficad ! com>
Date:       2000-04-11 21:40:30
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dep wrote:

> howdy!
>
> while struggling to put xplanet on my kde2 desktop, i asked, half
> jokingly, if there were a color in the kde palette called "clear."
> but that would, actually, not be a bad idea.
>
> i'm thinking of a "color" that behaves exactly like any other
> specified color in the desktop (or elsewhere), but that never
> actually paints anything to the screen. i d'n't know the extent to
> which it could be made to have other uses, but it seems as if it
> could be employed, too, as a background or foreground color to
> produce super-transparent applications of all sorts.
>
> is there any particular roadblock to this? seems to me that a
> placeholder for the color, but that doesn't do anything, would be
> fairly simple to implement. and applied not just to the desktop but
> to, for instance, some window elements in the colors dialog, it could
> produce some tremendously striking desktops, easily. (for instance --
> imagine an autohidden kicker, when that's enabled, with the
> background set to clear. moving the mouse to the edge would cause the
> contents of kicker to appear, but not kicker itself.)
>
> no, this idea isn't the result of drugs -- at least not recent
> ones.<g>
> --
> dep
> __
>
> if you go with the flow you'll get
> chopped to pieces by the turbines.

There is such a thing; it's called an Alpha channel. You should talk to
Mosfet about it; Qt supports it IIRC but the problem is in KDE somewhere
(at the libs level? I forget...)

It's a great idea and the Mac community will be getting a full dose of
it with Aqua. However, I think we'll probably have to wait until after
KDE2 for the Alpha-transparency that you're talking about...

-Chris

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