OpenEuphoria

Re: [WIN32LIB] Transparent Labels

• Posted by Greg Haberek <g.haberek at comcast.net> Mar 10, 2003
• 597 views

Sorry, the name of the libary is  "Irregular Windows Library" although I've been
having trouble
downloading it, both from RapidEuphoria.com as well as PatRat's site,
Rat-Software.com

----- Original Message -----
From: Travis Beaty <t_beaty at mchsi.com>
Subject: Re: [WIN32LIB] Transparent Labels



Hello Greg!

Thanks for the response.  I looked in the archive for the code that you
mentioned, but the only thing I could find by PatRat that  might be
close to what I need is his "Alpha Blending" library, which uses Windows
2000's alpha blending feature.  That sticks me out a little, because I'm
still (for the time being) using Windows ME.  Even if I were using XP or
Windows 2000, using this library could limit my users to those two
particular versions.

Perhaps I should explain a little better what I am doing.  There are two
problem elements to this main form.  First of all, there is a time and
date label, which sits above the background image (which fills the
entire window).  The time label in particular needs to be updated once
per second to properly update the seconds display.   (I can easy get out
of updating the date display by simply checking when hour = 0, and
updating the date then.)

Secondly, along the left side of the window, there are seven labels
which display characters, sort of the "Matrix" style.  These characters
start off at a font size of 5,  and are increased by 5 points every
1/8th of a second, until it reaches a size of 20.  This presents the
illusion of the character growing inside the label.  This is the control
that I am most worried about flashing and choking, but I think I can get
away with it in win32lib.ew given abundant calls to doEvents().

If I *do* end up having to manually draw these characters on the window
using wPuts(), perhaps I can find a way to just repaint the effected
areas as opposed to the entire window.

Thanks,

Travis Beaty
Mason City, Iowa.



Greg Haberek wrote:

>
>Create your OWN label! Look into PatRat's Transparent Window Library, I believe
>it's in the
>Archive. Use this to create a small transparent window, then use wPuts() to put
>the text on the
>label only during an onPaint event, to minimize flickering. I believe this
>should work,
although
>I've never tried it.
>



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