Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!bionet!agate!ziploc!eps
From: eps@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: background window/Scene question
Summary: Why didn't I think of this for April 1st???
Message-ID: <885@toaster.SFSU.EDU>
Date: 9 Oct 90 04:07:30 GMT
References: <486.270ce598@venus.ycc.yale.edu>
Reply-To: eps@cs.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott)
Organization: San Francisco State University
Lines: 39

Well, I was working on a more-or-less definitive answer to this
and in the process of coding a program to set the background
image (i.e. a much improved replacement for Lane's shell script
posted here in March), came up with an amusing derivative...
and don't want to, um, compromise your enjoyment by releasing
source just yet.

Basically, when the Window Server starts, there is only one
window in the screen list: a screen-sized nonretained window
painted gray (with the same exposure color).  Scene installs a
*retained* window above that to hold background images, and
twiddles things so the Workspace Manager uses that as its
"placemat."  (to be continued)


I've FTPed the following to the submissions directory at cs.orst.edu:

-rwxr-xr-x  1 eps        16384 Oct  8 19:53 narcissus*
sum	07460    16

This is a binary executable.

narcissus deals with one of my earliest criticisms about the
Workspace: if you happen upon a logged-in NeXT you can't see
who's logged in.  Now you can.  :-)

If your picture's not in /LocalLibrary/Images/People, you will
find narcissus very dull indeed.  Refer to the documentation on
the NeXT Mail Application for more information on this.

What else?  The program is reasonably well-behaved, but only
known to work on 1.0 and 1.0a systems, and probably will choke
and die on color images.  (Not having any color systems to test
this on...)  There are some circumstances under which it won't
work correctly, but it shouldn't do anything harmful.

Enough spoilers... go play!

					-=EPS=-