[cairo] Latest diagram - svgz file 51K

[Donn]

Baz,
 Thanks for your help thus far.

I see what you mean about the path and the mask now. I especially like this 
description:
"If I said fill(), it would punch a triangular hole in the mask and show you 
the source paint through that."
That really evokes a mental image.

I was trying to get a 'visual metaphor' going and my email to the list about 
it a few days ago has largely been ignored, so I went ahead on my own. I 
wanted there to be "somewhere" the "pencil" was touching-down and that's why 
I introduced the 'constructing a path on the Mask' idea.

After reading your wording, I am going to give it a while and see what I can 
do. I don't want to re-re-do the entire diagram (It's taking too much of my 
time right now), but I must do something.

> Of course, describing the mask without alpha compositing like that, it
> sounds pretty similar to the clip. But even without alpha, cairo
> doesn't have stroke_to_path() yet, so you can't emulate stroke() with
> clip().
I'm not sure I followed you into this one :) Forgive me, I am not too well 
today. 

> "the path is just a blueprint, not part of the manufacturing machinery (the 
mask)."
Another great line!

> I'll stop with the ludicrous analogies now :)
Don't, you have a knack.

> So this isn't about reuse, its about isolation of drawing code. 
Ah, well put.

> But the thing I most commonly use save/restore for is to manipulate the 
clip. 
Also a very clear example.

Well, thanks for a short burst of really high quality information. 

Ciao,
\d
-- 
He had a mind so fine that no idea could violate it. -- T.S. Eliot (about 
Henry James)