Re: how does ballon-help work under X?

Andy Piper writes: > At 22:24 24/10/98 -0400, Douglas Keller wrote: > >Hrvoje Niksic writes: > > > Andy Piper <andyp(a)parallax.co.uk&gt; writes: > > > > > > > I've been knocking up some C support for balloon help under > > > > mswindows and have suddenly realised that I can find no place where > > > > the code in balloon-x.c is called. > > > > > > That's because it's not called. The code you see in balloon-x.c is > > > experimental and should IMHO be removed. Under X, balloon helps are > > > created as tiny frames, which is somewhat bulky and very slow. > > > >This is why I made balloon-x.c...it is only experimental because it's > >not being used. The balloon_help.c code itself is not experimental > >and works fine. > > ? Does ballon_help get called? Whats the difference? The difference is Kyle's stuff uses a Frame with the minibuffer, modeline, menus, and scrollbars off. balloon_help.c uses X calls to open a non-bordered window (OverrideRedirect in X terms) that looks more like the windows tool tips. Kyle's stuff is more general because it can use any XEmacs features like faces, but because it is a Frame it is heavier. balloon_help.c can only display text, but is lighter because all it opens is a single X window and draws into it. BTW RMS has ask me for a GPL'd version of balloon_help.c so they can include it in FSF Emacs.