Re: true transparency

[Tom Gilbert <gilbertt tomgilbert freeserve co uk>]

On Tue, 15 Jun 1999, Michael ROGERS wrote:

->The window on top would get focus - with alpha support you wouldn't have the
->problem of the mouse having to be over the text that you would get with a
->shaped window.

But how would you know which window was on top if they were all
see-thru???

->>It would only lead to brainache!
->
->Only if you stacked up a load of transparent windows - so you wouldn't.

(!)

The hole point of the desktop metaphor is that you *can* stack up windows,
without fear of confusion! And anyway, why would you want your windows
transparent if you were going to *avoid* putting them on top of each
other!

->Michael Rogers

You'd be moving windows about in order to get them in a position where you
could understand their contents! What is the point? Why would it be
pretty? If you want to see what's behind a window, you move it out of the
way. The point of a window, is seeing what is *in* it!

Pseudo transparent is cool, 'cos you can work without obscuring the
beautiful background you just spent hours creating. You can still read
text against it, and work with it. If you tried to read text with a gmc
window behind it with 'true' transparency enabled, even if the
windows were only *slightly* overlapping, it wouldn't be legible! I truly
believe if such a feature was available, you'd show it to your friend,
play for 5 minutes, then turn it off and get back to work.

Just try to picture 'true' transparency, whilst looking at your average
desktop. Chaos.

No?

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