On 2009-10-25 14:13-0700 Alan W. Irwin wrote: > On 2009-10-25 15:11-0500 Hezekiah M. Carty wrote: >> It is my understanding that automatically clearing the page to the >> background color is intentionally left out of the extcairo device >> intentionally so that the provided context is preserved. This way a >> user can provide, for example, an image they want to plot over and it >> will be preserved. >> >> I use this feature of the driver quite often, so I would prefer that >> the extcairo functionality remain as-is, at least in the default case. > > There are two issues here. (1) Should we allow specifying a possibly > transparent background colour for extcairo similar to every other device > driver? (2) If the answer to (1) is yes, should that default background > be transparent? > > I would argue pretty strongly for (1) simply because most/all of our devices > have background colour setting capability, and I assume some extcairo users > will want this as well (e.g., for our ext-cairo-test case). I think the > answer to (2) should depend on what the majority of users are doing with > extcairo. I don't have a clue about that usage, but if you think the > majority will be using background images instead of solid backgrounds, then > I would be willing to go along with making the background transparent by > default for the extcairo case simply as a matter of convenience for that > majority use case.
With regards to implementing this, I just realized that it should be easier to implement background colour processing as a driver option for extcairo then something more complicated that I had in mind before with transparent background colours. So (1) and (2) should be changed to (1) Should we implement background colour processing as a driver option for extcairo? (2) if so, should the default driver option be to have that background or not for extcairo? I think (1) is a no-brainer. On (2) I would be happy to go along with your instincts about what default would be the most convenient for typical background (PLplot or image?) usage by all users. Alan __________________________ Alan W. Irwin Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca). Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state implementation for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting software package (plplot.org); the libLASi project (unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of Linux Links project (loll.sf.net); and the Linux Brochure Project (lbproject.sf.net). __________________________ Linux-powered Science __________________________ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Come build with us! The BlackBerry(R) Developer Conference in SF, CA is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9 - 12, 2009. Register now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconference _______________________________________________ Plplot-devel mailing list Plplot-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/plplot-devel
