Re: [rox-devel] Transparent icon drags

[Garrett C <ga...@cs...>]

<snip>

> I think you might be underestimating the amount of animated stuff that can
> be around; scrolling terminals, clocks, volume meters, progress bars... 
> There's a lot that could change underneath an icon as you drag it about; 
> it isn't just the target area that matters but the path you take too. That
> and I tend to find that things that are fine most of the time are really
> annoying on the occasions that they don't work.
> If you were going to use this approach when would you do the screen grab?
> If you do it at the beginning of the drag and don't update it then it
> would easily get out of date; if you keep doing it it would be a huge
> processing overhead.
>

Yes, I see what you mean. It wouldn't really be practical.
How about the option to drag icons as an outline? Obviously not as pretty
as translucency, and with the disadvantage that you can't see the picture
on the icon being dragged, but it would allow you to see what is under the
icon better...
 
> > > The best approximation we can do is to use a stipple pattern over the mask
> > > to get a poor sort of 50% transparency (like NewerLook does). This could
> > > work, but it won't look so good. Make it an option?
> > That does sound like a good idea, actually. And it would look pretty good
> > on my screen res (1600x1280).
> 
> That kind of thing can give wierd aliasing effects on some icons, but it
> can't hurt as an option. Alternativly I seem to remember a little program
> on the acorn that flashed dragged icons on and off very rapidly - ie 100%
> transparent, then 0% transparent -> average of 50%. If you've got a
> refresh rate to match that resolution it would work for you at least :-) 

I think I remember that program. Using it on the old A3000 hurt the eyes,
but it worked well on the RiscPC (about 70Hz refresh, I think).

Chris.