Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!uflorida!gatech!bloom-beacon!LARRY.MCRCIM.MCGILL.EDU!mouse
From: mouse@LARRY.MCRCIM.MCGILL.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re:  Transparent windows
Message-ID: <9011091751.AA00448@Larry.McRCIM.McGill.EDU>
Date: 9 Nov 90 17:51:21 GMT
Sender: daemon@athena.mit.edu (Mr Background)
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 22

> Does anybody have a suggestion about how to make a Xlib window
> transparent except for items drawn in it with GCs in an opaque color?

You can't really.  But read on....

> I want to display a round menu button in a transparent window and
> don't want anything but the menu button (which is not rectangular) to
> be opaque.  I can't use the background color/pixmap of the window(s)
> behind it because it may be overlapping two windows or it may be on
> top of an image which is grayscale.

About the only option I see is the SHAPE extension.  You could use a
window with background None, but only if the stuff underneath the
bounding rectangle isn't going to be changing while the button is up.

For the SHAPE extension, see mit/doc/extensions/shape.ms on the MIT R4
tape....

					der Mouse

			old: mcgill-vision!mouse
			new: mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu