forums.silverfrost.com

[LitusSaxonicum]

Hi Paul,

I beg to differ on the 'no longer useful', except with the reservation that 'no longer supported' certainly makes it 'no longer useful'. I'm also fascinated by the idea that 'no longer supported' can be made retrospective, although I suppose that downloading the latest DLLs is a mechanism for that, akin to downloading the latest Windows updates.

I didn't see any mention of it in the online Revision history, and it is still mentioned in the online help for %ww*, so perhaps my not realising it was 'no longer supported' is understandable and therefore perhaps forgiveable. The contents of the link might as well be written in Egyptian hieroglyphs** as far as I am concerned, but it was what I found doing a search for 'drop shadow' when looking for an explanation as to why things were evolving. The link, incidentally, suggests that drop shadows don't need to be 'native to ClearWin+' but are native to Windows itself, in which case I impudently refer you back to an earlier statement that you made that ClearWin+ is simply a wrapper for Windows functionality (or words to that effect).

I'd already worked out that I might have to do something different in order to go forward, especially as the Windows paradigm has been to shift away from a pseudo 3D appearance towards a more flat look - but I haven't yet worked out quite what. I'd appreciate any suggestions from anyone out there who has solved the related problem for themselves. I appreciated the prompt reply as it is the necessary impetus*** to go and do the job differently rather than to put it off in the hope that somehow the issue resolved itself.

Eddie

* Which rather means that the short, four-letter, response of RTFM cannot be used in this context.

** I'd always imagined that an understanding of MSDN's arcane language resided up there in Silverfrost's HQ. I regarded myself as a latter-day Bouchard, or perhaps Thomas Young, in recognising the significance of relevant elements in the MSDN page while using Google Search as my Rosetta Stone, but that the skills of a true Champollion to decypher it all only resided up there in Salford.

https://blog.britishmuseum.org/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-the-rosetta-stone/

*** In this respect I shall consider myself to be Bishop Brennan to your Father Ted!

[PaulLaidler]

Eddie

The shadow is provided internally by ClearWin+ and worked quite well for a while with the early APIs. But changes in the Microsoft API has had an adverse effect on the displayed result.

I spent a long time trying to restore the original ClearWin+ shadow but with limited success. Also at that time Microsoft was providing a similar shadow by default.

If this is important to you then I can try again but I am not confident that I can provide a permanent fix (i.e. one that will not change as the APIs evolve).

Paul

[LitusSaxonicum]

Hi Paul,

I hope that you were able to take my reply in the tongue in cheek manner in which it was intended. As a result of the Fr Ted - Bishop Brennan kick up the backside, I've had a look at the code, and the lack of a drop shadow is in principle compensatable by deletion of casts_shadow, and insertion of a %bg coloured appropriately.(RGB@(110, 110, 110) seems to work well instead of the previous btnface) I have noted that the current frame colour for my popup windows makes it immaterial whether or not I have no_frame, but it depends somewhat on also having thin_border. I have considered wallpaper, but there are several sizes to consider, and there is also the issue of different dpi settings.

It did seem to me that the MSDN link indicated that a drop shadow feature was being implemented in the MS Windows API, but I suspect strongly that I'm the only user with this particular interest so I wouldn't waste time on it (unless, of course, it grabbed your fancy). I'd already assumed that I was having to find a workaround.

This whole business of features being dropped (by MS, not by SF) irritates me, but then I've noticed it in numerous other contexts, including in cars (e.g. now no wash before wipe), other software like my beloved CorelDRAW, and even the stock at my local Waitrose where anything I find I like is rapidly discontinued!

Eddie