Truly Transparent gnome-terminal

[Thomas Dodd]

Bill Rugolsky Jr. wrote:
> You may want to try these packages from Fedora.
> I haven't spent much time on theming, but as a demo it is enough to

Interesting start. but....
> Name        : directfb                     Relocations: (not relocateable)
...
> DirectFB is a thin library that provides hardware graphics acceleration,
> input device handling and abstraction, integrated windowing system with
...
> It is a complete hardware abstraction layer with software fallbacks for
> every graphics operation that is not supported by the underlying hardware.
> DirectFB adds graphical power to embedded systems and sets a new standard
> for graphics under Linux.

 From the directfb site:
  The API and structure of DirectFB is designed to provide an easy way 
of implementing the following parts:

     * Graphics acceleration (currently Matrox G200/G400/G450/G550, 
ATI128, Voodoo 3, NeoMagic, Savage and CyberPro)
     * Input devices (currently keyboard, serial and PS/2 mice, joysticks)
     * Image Provider (currently PNG, GIF and JPEG)
     * Video Provider (currently Video4Linux, AVI (using avifile), 
MPEG1/2 (using libmpeg3), macromedia flash (using libflash))
     * Font Provider (currently DirectFB bitmap font, TrueType via 
FreeType 2)

Very limited support. I don't quite understand the implications of what 
is sad here <http://www.directfb.org/gtk.xml>, considering the dependenc 
of RHL on GTK+ and GNOME, but this 
<http://www.directfb.org/directfbgl.xml> is not good if you like games 
or other 3D apps.

I think the window manger/Xserver need true layering support though. 
Then the Transparent windows would work. Right now, gnome-terminal (or 
any other app) has no way to get information on an of the windows behind 
(under) it in the stacking order, other than the root window (desktop). 
Without that information, the best any app can do is paint it's window 
with the contents of the root-window.

Trying to get gnome-terminal to find all the windows it's overlaying, 
with the correct stacking order, then sending repaint request for the 
correct areas is a lot to ask. An any App tht want's to support "true" 
transparency would need to impliment it all over again. So the WM and 
Xserver really need to develop a API that apps can use for this.

	-Thomas