Sven, Thanks for your suggestions and it is very possible that I am confusing things. Although I've read through much of the documentation, including the PDF, I'm still very new to DirectFB as I've only now started taking a serious look at it.
I will have to download the source and try out the lite toolkit and GTK extensions; there may not be, as you mentioned, a need for what I was looking to develop. Essentially my goals for this API were / are: - ability to create decoration-less shaped windows - ability to create widgets each with their own level of transparency - ability to create controls (buttons, menus, etc) which do not conform to preconceived shapes (i.e. allow developer to define their own shape and behavior for controls) The last item is I think the biggest task. The API I would like to create (or use if one is already available) would allow a developer to define new behaviors for things like menus where instead of a rectangular menu being displayed and an additional rectangle displaying next to it for a submenu, allow the developer to define how a submenu should look, how it should be animated, etc. Much of this is very similar to what is currently done with interfaces developed in Flash or in skinned applications, only it would move it beyond Flash scripts into a C library. Thank you for your help and suggestions. Sincerely, jpbarto -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Sven Neumann Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2004 12:18 PM To: Barto, Jason P Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [directfb-dev] Re: Question about DirectFB's applicability Hi, "Barto, Jason P" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Please excuse me if this is a simple question, but I've read over the > README and other materials and I am still undecided. I am looking to > develop a GUI API, similar to GTK+, which will incorporate alpha > transparency. Very similar to DirectFB except individual buttons, > menus, etc (widgets) would each have their own level of transparency. Did you have a look at the lite toolkit in DirectFB CVS yet? > It seems DirectFB would be capable of this as each widget could be > comprised of its own window (alpha levels are only associated at a > window level correct?). DirectFB windows can have a per-window opacity level. However DirectFB surfaces with alpha capabilities can have per-pixel alpha values. I have the impression that you are confusing things. > However the hardware issues make me somewhat hesitant, I would > prefer for the API to be independent of hardware. Only the layer API is really hardware dependant. > Initially I was thinking of just using the GTK and GDK libraries and > calculating transparencies on my own. And I am looking for advice / > guidance: would performing alpha calculations in software be too > resource intensive?; should I use the DirectFB libraries to handle > alpha transparency? And would I be going outside the intent of the > DirectFB libraries to try and render each element of a window with > it's own level of transparency? This has already been done with GTK+-DirectFB. Why don't you just try it to see how well it performs? Sven
