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Author Topic: Window application with no window?  (Read 1687 times)

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wixard

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Window application with no window?
« on: October 29, 2012, 10:13:06 pm »
Is it possible to use SFML to create a window application without a window? For example, let's say I wanted to saw a circle and have it follow the mouse, but without an actual "window"/gui - is that possible? Another example might be to show a pop-up 'toast' or tooltip on screen without a modal/window rendering.

I'm just getting back into c++, I'm fairly beginner level - so please be patient if you have examples and it is possible. That said, I'm finding SFML fairly easy to pick up (althought I am slow): the tutorials and documentation are very helpful.

eXpl0it3r

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Re: Window application with no window?
« Reply #1 on: October 29, 2012, 10:17:50 pm »
Everything is possible with C++, but just not with SFML directly. ;)

You'd need to look into some OS specific coding I guess. Depending on what you want to achieve there might be tools that could simplify things dramatically. ;)
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wixard

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Re: Window application with no window?
« Reply #2 on: October 29, 2012, 10:35:05 pm »
Everything is possible with C++, but just not with SFML directly. ;)

You'd need to look into some OS specific coding I guess. Depending on what you want to achieve there might be tools that could simplify things dramatically. ;)

I've always wanted to be able to expand the MS Windows clipboard functionality to be able to copy from and paste into more then one clipboard, all accessible from the mouse and ctrl+c/v. My goal is to be able to draw 2 boxes next to the mouse when the ctrl+c hotkey is pressed and held and allow the user to move the mouse to either box and place their clipboard. It looks like the event/mouse and graphics systems of SFML can achieve part of this challenge, but I'm not sure about the window system and haven't dug deep enough yet.

It would be cool to make this cross-platform, but knowing it's probably a simpler task, focusing on Microsoft Windows (i.e. 8 ) in SFML is my target OS to start.

My long-term goal with SFML is actually to make games, but right now that above task is something I've always wanted to achieve in c++ but haven't been able to in it's entirety... only parts at a time (i.e clipboard management from a console - which is not complete/ideal for what I want). I figured it would be a good chance to learn some SFML too. I was already playing with some of the mouse [and other] functions - pretty easy!

PS - Thanks for the quick reply ^^
« Last Edit: October 29, 2012, 10:54:12 pm by wixard »

wixard

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Re: Window application with no window?
« Reply #3 on: October 29, 2012, 11:05:35 pm »
It looks this in some ways a similar discussion here:
http://en.sfml-dev.org/forums/index.php?topic=2342.0

However, I feel like I can't rely on the main application window to achieve this (through transparency) but need to draw to the desktop (so no issues with window-focus while capture keypress/events from mouse). I will keep experimenting and reading.