Re: Semi-transparent, blurred NSWindow background?
Re: Semi-transparent, blurred NSWindow background?
- Subject: Re: Semi-transparent, blurred NSWindow background?
- From: Jonathan Dann <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:45:54 +0100
On 26 Aug 2008, at 00:52, Graham Cox wrote:
On 26 Aug 2008, at 8:00 am, Jonathan Dann wrote:
Using the private APIs / the method that Rob showed is perfectly
fast.
I'd really like this made easier too, so I filed an enhancement
request rdar://6174287
Is it possible to file a de-enhancement request? ;-)
Nice, I usually resist writing LOL, but that did make me LOL!
Am I the only one mystified by the attraction of this particular
effect? It burns CPU/GPU time like there's no tomorrow for no
apparent benefit to the usability of the UI. The original idea of
semi-transparent windows seems a good one - you can still read some
of the content behind which can enhance usability when you need a
quick reminder of what's there without having to activate the
window. For example there are times when you have no choice but to
retype something you can see in one window and enter it in a field
in another (admittedly these times have got a lot rarer with static
text being often selectable/copyable, but it still happens).
With blurring, the ability to do that has been wiped out in a lot of
cases. Why? What's the metaphor for a blurring window? Frosted
glass? How many windows in the real world use frosted glass? Not
many in proportion to transparent glass, that's for sure. When I
first saw Vista I chuckled at the widespread use of the blurring
effect because it seemed like those guys had introduced some
gratuitous eye-candy without getting in any way why they'd done it.
I was sorry to see that the joke was on us in Leopard. Leopard's
blurring is subtler than Vista's, so let's be grateful for small
mercies - but I do think we ought to be debating why we have this at
all.
A public API for this would mean that every man and his dog will be
adding blurring because it's "cool" without thinking about what it
*means*. It's going to be the brushed metal of the next few OS revs
I fear.
I know what you mean. It's a very fine line to tread when working on
a GUI app, but I'm not convinced that *absolutely* everything has to
mean something, just the overwhelming majority. I think in this case
its one of those things that does add a nice touch to the UI, if used
very sparingly. In the case of a contextual menu I think that
transparency would be wrong as the user is trying to read the menu
text and too much of the masked (for example) text view below would be
distracting. I quite like the subtlety of the blurring, and come to
think of it, it may imply that the view that blurs is a transient
one. I don't keep menus open for long enough for the CPU usage to be
an issue, and I don't think many would.
As always, I'm open to a rebuke! :)
Take care,
Jonathan
http://espresso-served-here.com
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