Background

As defined in the X specification, windows can have a background. The main purpose of window background is to display something in the exposed areas of a window in case the client is slow to repaint these areas. This background is rendered whenever the window receives an Expose event. The background is rendered before the Expose event is sent to the client. The background is also rendered when the client makes an XClearArea or XClearWindow request.

Like standard X InputOutput windows, transparent overlay windows can also have a background. The background of a transparent overlay window is rendered just like a non-overlay window in response to Expose events, XClearArea requests, or XClearWindow requests. In addition to the standard types of background (None, pixmap, pixel, or parent relative), transparent overlay windows can also be assigned a new type of background: transparent. A new routine, XSolarisOvlSetWindowTransparent, is available to set the background type to transparent.

The background of a transparent overlay window is transparent by default. However, the application can still specify one of the usual X types of background: None, a pixmap XID, a pixel value, or ParentRelative, as shown in Table 6–1 .

Table 6–1 Background Values for a Transparent Overlay Window

Background	Description
transparent	Background of transparent overlay window is transparent by default.
None	No rendering is performed when the overlay window encounters a condition that invokes background painting. Neither transparent nor opaque paint is rendered.
Pixmap ID	The background is rendered with opaque paint. The rendered pixel values are derived from the pixmap as defined in the X specification.
Single pixel value	The background is a solid color rendered with opaque paint.
ParentRelative	The behavior for a ParentRelative background depends on the parent window background and its type. If the parent window is an underlay, the background for the overlay window child will be rendered with opaque paint, and the rendered pixels will be as defined in the X specification. If the parent window is an overlay, the background of the overlay child will be the same as that of the parent, either transparent or opaque paint will be rendered.

Attempts to set the background of a non-overlay window with XSolarisOvlSetTransparent generates a BadMatch error. If an underlay window has a ParentRelative background and the parent window is an overlay with a transparent background, the underlay child is treated as if it has a background of None.