Re: Balloon-help or callout window

["John (J5) Palmieri" <johnp redhat com>]

On Wed, 2004-09-08 at 00:46 +1000, Darryl Luff wrote:
> John (J5) Palmieri wrote:
>
> > On Sat, 2004-09-04 at 19:05, Darryl Luff wrote:
> >  
> >
> > > Hi all,
> > >
> > > I'm after a GTK widget that gives a 'balloon help' type display with a 
> > > pointer that links to another widget. Like a comic talk bubble. I've 
> > > found some discussions but no code.
> > >    
> >
> > What do you mean links to a widget? Embeds it?
> >
> >  
> A small popup window that looks similar to the standard tool-tip 
> windows, but multiline - and with a line drawn from the popup window to 
> specific widget. So when giving specific help I can popup the window 
> with instructions, and the pointer visually shows which widget I'm 
> talking about. I've put a mockup at http://www.snakegully.nu/balloon.png.
>
> ...
>
> > > Or if I need to do it myself, would I have to make a shaped window that 
> > > included the space for the pointer, or is there a way to draw on the 
> > > screen outside widgets?
> > >    
> >
> > You would have to create a top level window though I personally think it
> > would be hacky to use shaped windows.  I think any bubble widget should
> > be simple and square for X instances not using composite and use the
> > composite extension for fancier geometries when available.
> >
> >  
> I agree about the shaped windws. The actual window is square. The only 
> non-square bit is he pointer, and that seems to be the tricky bit.

As long as your line is straight you can use shaped windows with a
minimal performance hit (just two boxes above and below the line).
Since shaped windows are defined by boxes having anything other than a
straight line would be prohibited.  Why not just extend tool-tips to
have multiple lines?  

-- 
John (J5) Palmieri
Associate Software Engineer
Desktop Group
Red Hat, Inc.
Blog: http://martianrock.com