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> 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.
doug