The problem is that the current windows module is targeted at Windows 98 not Windows XP. For that reason we are restricted to long outdated stuff (the used TextArea shows that as well ...). If you want to have newer technology you will need to implement it yourself.
Why is that so? BlitzMax is targeted at XP, so it would be nice but not required if it wouldn't run on Win98. Well, at least, I wouldn't miss it. Who uses Win98 anyway?
Another reason is, that the UI system itself has no graphics hardware accelerated gadgets on Windows < Vista, for that reason, using alpha has a serious impact on most systems ... you can do it through graphics driver but it won't make the user happy normally :) Vista only has graphics accelerated UI, which is why it wouldn't be a problem there at all.
To me it seems that XP uses hardware acceleration for the GUI. If you do not install your graphics driver, the gui builds really slow but once installed there's no noticable slowdown. Why would installing the driver have an effect on the rendering of the GUI if it doesn't make hardware acceleration possible? Plus, on my old system (xp2400, 2ghz, 1gb ram) there is no visible slowdown when I have loads of transparent windows open. I have a fairly large display (1920x1200) so that SHOULD slowdown if it was not accelerated.
Well, at least that is what it seems to me, but I do not have any technical knowledge. So, please tell me where I'm wrong :)
(and just before anyone mentiones those nice funny graphics overlay things like windowblinds, object dock and the like: Those use a hardware graphics overlay to the desktop, so they disable the regular stuff normally and draw their own hardware accelerated stuff above the desktop)
I don't have any of that fancy stuff.
Furthermore, where is this SetGadgetTransparent function? I did a full text search on my BlitzMax folder (fully sync'ed) but I cannot find it. Also, bMax throws a compile error when I try this function: Compile Error: Identifier 'SetGadgetTransparent' not found
(On WinXP, that is).
Edit: ah, that should be SetGadgetAlpha. Looking at the .max source, it should be possible to set the alpha of a panel in windows but it doesn't work. Didn't look at the underlying stuff tho'.