Re: Being transparent
Re: Being transparent
On Thu, Jun 19, 2003 at 09:55:34AM +0200, Lee Cheng Siang wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I was trying to make my dull rxvt windows look more interesting but to
> no avail because I don't know how to set the pseudo-transparency on? I
> read the man pages but it looks like Martian to me. Then I downloaded
> the eterm and installed it. It has funny images behind, but I can't
> seems to get pseudo transparency up. It seems that we need to notify
> Eterm of the "root desktop image"? It lead me to ask if the "root
> desktop image" under X11 is the same wallpaper we use under OS X?
>
> I'm now trying to have pseudo transparency via a different windows
> manager, icewm. Doesn't seems to be easy neither.
>
> Any clues?
Transparency of windows in X11 is nothing to do with the window manager.
The only thing the window manager does is draw any decorations around
the window, and maanage its placement on the screen, focus policy, and
so on. The contents of the window (including its background) is
entirely the X client's responsibility. Most X programs don't know
anything about transparency; it's not a built-in function within X, as
far as I know. The fact that some terminal programs (gnome-terminal,
for example) can do it is purely due to the people who wrote those
programs doing it themselves the hard way.
You won't get the results you expect, since gnome-terminal uses the root
window background to generate its transparency (if I remember
correctly), and I don't know what that'll do on a rootless window server
like X11. You certainly won't see through to other Mac applications or
the Quartz desktop, since gnome-terminal won't know anything about them.
Actually, I've just tried gnome-terminal on X11.app, and transparency
doesn't seem to work on that either. I suspect this is for the same
reason. I think you have three choices:
1) Make do with no transparency (personally, I find transparency really
annoying anyway)
2) Switch to the rooted XDarwin server, which might support
transparency in gnome-terminal and eterm.
3) Use an Aqua terminal program, such as Terminal.app or, my
preference, iTerm.app, and use the X11 server for other X clients.
Tim
--
Dr Tim Cutts
Informatics Systems Group
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, UK
_______________________________________________
x11-users mailing list | email@hidden
Help/Unsubscribe/Archives: http://www.lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/x11-users
X11 for Mac OS X FAQ: http://developer.apple.com/qa/qa2001/qa1232.html
Report issues, request features, feedback: http://developer.apple.com/bugreporter
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.