[comp.sys.next] Nonrectangular Window

zimmer@calvin.stanford.edu (Andrew Zimmerman) (05/22/91)

(Still waiting for my 2.0 doc, so I thought I would ask the net.)

Is it possible to have a nonrectangular window under NextStep.  For example,
would it be possible to have a circular window, or a general shape?

Thanks for any help,
Andrew 
zimmer@calvin.stanford.edu

quist@bambam.dsd.es.com (Doug Quist) (05/29/91)

In article <1991May22.082701.14211@neon.Stanford.EDU>, zimmer@calvin.stanford.edu (Andrew Zimmerman) writes:
> Is it possible to have a nonrectangular window under NextStep.  For example,
> would it be possible to have a circular window, or a general shape?

In the Developers examples (I think /NextDeveloper/Examples) there is
an app called WhatADrag which does exactly that.  It creates a non-
rectanglular window (really an icon) and allows it to be moved around.

I think you could find some pointers in there.

		Doug
-- 
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      Douglas B. Quist -- speaking only for myself, of course.
   quist@dsd.es.com or decwrl!esunix!quist or utah-cs!esunix!quist

     Funny how your feet in dreams never touch the earth - HEART
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aozer@next.com (Ali Ozer) (05/29/91)

In article <1991May29.011951.18472@dsd.es.com> Doug Quist writes:
>In article <1991May22.082701.14211@neon.Stanford.EDU> Andrew Zimmerman writes:
>> Is it possible to have a nonrectangular window under NextStep.  For example,
>> would it be possible to have a circular window, or a general shape?
>In the Developers examples (I think /NextDeveloper/Examples) there is
>an app called WhatADrag which does exactly that.  It creates a non-
>rectanglular window (really an icon) and allows it to be moved around.

Although you can claim the example shows how to do "non-rectangular"
windows, the bottom line is, no, NeXTstep does not support non-rectangular
windows. The example shows how you can give the illusion of a partially 
transparent window by copying bits from the windows under it. Pretty 
neat for modal situations such as dragging images around on top of other
windows, but not a general solution...  Dragging file icons in Workspace and 
the Color Panel magnifier class also use this technique.

Ali