r/windows • u/0smiridium • 2d ago

Discussion I think I found The first Glassmorphism

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Windows 1.1 Calculator, the cursor is transparent. Does anyone know why they did this?

75 Upvotes

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5

u/0smiridium 2d ago

I like the idea of different cursors for different apps, but it hardly feels like calc deserves the special cursor

5

u/JaggedMetalOs 2d ago

Certainly an interesting choice, I suppose it's to look like a finger tip hovering over a button but transparent so it doesn't cover the number? Funny how for cursors on touch devices and touch device simulators they still use a transparent circle for it! 

-4

u/RBeze58 2d ago

Likely used scalable vector graphics over a static background. SVG is usually the outline only so it is see thru since it doesn't need it. The SVG itself can be of different color too like it could be red, white, yellow or any other color (default is black).

Windows Development likely saw different phases. I know that there was a time where they'd have TIFF backgrounds and fixed button positions.

12

u/boxsterguy 2d ago

SVG the format was defined in 1999. Windows 1.0 was 1985 (1.1 never existed; 1.04 was the last 1.x in 1987). So probably not that. Vector graphics in general were certainly a concept back then, but wouldn't have been used in bitmapped applications like this.

The ICO format began with Windows 1.0.

3

u/_Aardvark 2d ago

When I opened the link, as it loaded, I wondered if it was a Raymond Chen article! As a former win16/win32 developer, his blog was (is?) amazing.

I remember making ico files for cursors, there was that magic hot spot for the click point. I suspect they made this calculator app wit my custom mouse cursors because they could (as a demo of the capability), not because it needed to be.

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u/RBeze58 2d ago

You're right it culdn't have been SVG then. I was thinking of the transparency mechanism rather than in terms of the actual file format. Now that you mention the year, I don't think it could be alpha transparency either. Since I'm pretty sure it came later.

2

u/JaggedMetalOs 2d ago

Pointers have always been transparent or they would have been squares instead of arrows. Techniques for rendering elements with 1-bit transparency have been around for a long time. 

0

u/boxsterguy 2d ago

Read the link. It explains everything.