Re: [css-3 colors] Transparent backgrounds

On Wed, May 12, 2010 at 5:21 AM, Alex Meiburg <timeroot.alex@gmail.com> wrote:
> I was wondering how a transparent background should be rendered bu user
> agents. Suppose the body element (and perhaps the html element too) had a
> semi-transparent value - should they be cast against a white background, or
> should the window actually appear transparent as well, allowing the
> desktop/other windows to show though?
> If the latter, how should this be rendered on mobile platforms?

When MicroB embeds content for hosting on the n900 desktop, we support
transparency. *This applet support is not part of a default install --
it's in some other package. We do this only when a user has decided to
trust content and stick it on his desktop.

>From memory, Netscape Netcaster also supported interestingly shaped
desktop elements.

For privacy/security reasons, I would expect that standard browser
environments would *not* allow transparency to the desktop element,
but that doesn't preclude Web Runtimes from providing it. This doesn't
prevent a browser from picking a color other than white or a
background other than solid white.

Gecko itself certainly supports opacity on its application windows,
it's easily controlled by trusted xul applications (and a common
mistake is to make xul applications transparent by forgetting to theme
them w/ some opacity).

Received on Wednesday, 12 May 2010 06:38:34 UTC