Re: aterm transparency

Sasha Vasko/OSCA/Courts/Judicial(sashav@sprintmail.com)
Thu, 15 Mar 2001 09:02:44 -0600 

> On Wed, 14 Mar 2001 sean@dague.net wrote:
> 
> >I know that aterm is highly optimized to make pseudo transparency not 
take
> >much in the way of cpu cycles, which is really cool.
> >
> >But, for those of us that have too many cpu cycles, it might be nice to 
have
> >aterm pick up its background from something like xearth.
> >
> >Can this be hacked with the existing programs, or would I need to hack 
at
> >aterm to make it work?
> >
> >It is probably a silly thought, but my ascpu applet lacks activity. Have 
to
> >make this machine work harder. :)
> >
> >     -Sean
> 
> I'm not sure about this, but I think the xearth author would have to take 
the
> necessary steps in order for aterm to update properly.

That is absolutely correct. There are some limitations in X windows that 
prevents 
us from being able to track updates of windows in real time. Even thou it 
is
possible to get image that xearth puts on the root - it is not possible to 
find out
WHEN it does that. There is a de-facto standard for making root image 
available 
to other apps - both aterm and eterm support it (in fact it was created for 
eterm).
xearth has to be modified to support it. Unfortunately it has not made it 
to 
Extended WM specs that just been finalized.

> Since you've got plenty of cycles to spare, I would recommend xplanet as 
a
> substitute.  It has many many more feature than xearth, plus it uses 
actual
> satellite images of the Earth (or any other body) including nightmaps and
> cloudmaps too.
> 
> Best of all, the xplanet author uses AfterStep, so when it updates the

Such a fine young man he is :)

> background, xplanet will also do whatever is necessary with asetroot to 
update
> the transparency in aterm, wharf, winlist, etc.
> 
> You can find it at http://xplanet.sourceforge.net
> 
> --John Gruenenfelder    Research Assistant, Steward Observatory, U of 
Arizona
> 

Cheers 
Sasha Vasko


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