How to make windowshape working on Raspi

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[-hh]
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How to make windowshape working on Raspi

Post by [-hh] » Fri Jan 29, 2016 8:27 pm

Great news,

due to a valuable hint of Alejandro and a hint of Richmond to that hint we have now a solution for making windowshape work with LC 6.5.1 and 7.0.4 on Raspi.

The attached image was done just now with a "windowShape" in LC 6.5.1 on a Raspi B stack I prepared for the time when windowshape will work. Now it's possible.
[Edit. After first crashes and some improvements it works now, see "Shaped RaspiStack #2" below.]

Here are the instructions:

Use the Terminal of your Raspi.

[1] sudo apt-get install xcompmgr
[2] cd /etc/xdg/autostart/
[3] sudo nano Xcompmgr.desktop

Then copy and paste the following.

Code: Select all

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=XCompmgr
Comment=XCompmgr--our compositor
Exec=xcompmgr
Terminal=false
Type=Application
OnlyShowIn=XFCE;LXDE
Then type ctrl-o and then ctrl-x.
[4] sudo reboot

You are done.
WOW! Several stacks will now run on Raspi. What a wonderful weekend!
I'll post some stacks using windowshape as soon as I have them working.

Thanks Alejandro and Richmond!

Hermann
Attachments
raspiWindowShape.png
Rectangular windowshape (look through to desktop)
on a Raspi B, made with LC 6.5.1
Last edited by [-hh] on Mon Feb 01, 2016 8:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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[-hh]
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Re: How to make windowshape working on Raspi

Post by [-hh] » Fri Jan 29, 2016 11:57 pm

This works now out of the box:

Shaped RaspiStack #1 = splash213131.livecode

A zooming box, showing , LC-blue-logo, LC-green-logo, Richmond's "TOM" or Orange-N (regular N-polygons). Choose animation speed for that.

Choose an Orange-N with N<10 and click the button "Demo" (also with cmdKey/ctrlKey down what gives a nice animation, even on Raspi B).

I still can't believe it, how 'good' and clear now windowshape works, on a slow Raspi!
I hope, Fraser will see this and become proud of his work ...
Attachments
splash213131.livecode.zip
(173.47 KiB) Downloaded 480 times
splashRaspi.png
splashRaspi.png (186.63 KiB) Viewed 10495 times
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Re: How to make windowshape working on Raspi

Post by [-hh] » Sat Feb 06, 2016 1:38 am

Shaped RaspiStack #2 = hhScreenShot3a.livecode

This is a screen-shot-stack, a resizable 'frame-shaped' LC stack. Runs on Mac/Win/Linux with LC 6-8 and, yes on RaspberryPi B and 2 (with LC 6.5.1 and 7.0.4 -- I'm very impressed how fast and good the light-weight compositor xcompmgr works).

Button "?" shows "prefs" and (if small, by clicking the info field) short help.
There are moreover many tooltips.
framedshots1.PNG
pentagon-shaped framed screenshot
an simple rectangular screenshot
Features.
  • Choose a shape (button "S") of type
    = Rect -- and make unframed rectangular screenshots,
    = Oval or N-RP (regular N-polygons) -- and make shaped screenShots.
  • Drag the shape by its frame.
  • Resize the shape but the yellow most-right button.
  • Make a shotOne by clicking the green button.
  • Make a shotMany by clicking the lavender button (rate in millisecs and maxNumber are choosable)
framedshots2.PNG
oval-shaped framed screenshot and
10-gon-shaped framed screenshot
There is one not-so-good effect on *all* Linux/Raspi OS' that I tried: The transparency shows up, LC makes fine snapshots of the visible area inside the LC-frame, but we cannot click through to desktop or other apps, what works without problems under MacOS X and Win7-10. Advantage: One cannot click through, but drag at the transparent parts too.

Speed.
(LC 7, L6 is faster, LC 8 is slower):
Simple Rectangle in total (incl. file saving) needs
on 'fast' machine < 500 ms, framedShots < 900 ms,
on Raspi2 < 200 ms framedShots 1800 ms.

Have fun!

p.s. The stack has no built-in-preview any more. But you can open the screenshotsFolder from a click on the size-info field. I'll expand the preview part to a separate Raspi stack (which will by that be independent of a working windowshape-feature).
Attachments
hhScreenShot3b.livecode.zip
(39.31 KiB) Downloaded 444 times
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Re: How to make windowshape working on Raspi

Post by [-hh] » Sat Feb 06, 2016 11:12 pm

Shaped RaspiStack #3 = drawTime3.livecode

Yet another animated windowshape -- what else than a clock drawn by polygons only?
I made that once for Raspi with a black background. Now, with windowshape available (that's why I post it here and not in the Raspi collection), we have indeed a version that runs even on a RaspiB with < 10% CPU-top as shaped window.

Scripts beat 'exactly' (the Raspi has no hardwareclock, so a little bit "faked" here) every second and change only what has to be changed in the polygons, then do a snapshot and shape the window.
Hold optionkey down while the clock is running to see the time needed per second-cycle, on a 'medium fast' desktop this is < 10 ms, on a Raspi2 < 40 ms and on a RaspiB < 80 ms.

I polished the stack a little bit, the features now in sum:
  • DoubleClick or use EscapeKey to start/stop.
  • When stopped you can set colours and switch display of seconds/day on/off.
  • RightClick a running clock to toggle date display (YY|MM|DD) and time display (yy:mm:dd).
  • Drag the clock around using its digits.
  • Click at the four edges of the clock to let move the clock slowly to the corresponding edge of the working screenRect.
drawTime3.png
Clock-shaped window on top of a recent Bing wallpaper
The stack runs on Mac/Win/Linux with LC 6/LC 7/LC8
and on RaspberryPi with (the only available) LC 6.5.1 and 7.0.4.
Attachments
drawTime3.livecode.zip
(4.92 KiB) Downloaded 451 times
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