Talk:Color of a screen pixel

This task was originally contributed by the AutoHotkey community.

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I propose to clarify the task. In an operating system there can be many screens and many mice and other user output/input raster devices etc. Further under a properly designing operating system you just cannot access an arbitrary pixel on the screen for obvious security reasons. I suppose this task has rather something to do with a certain GUI framework, or, maybe, graphical system? How to get a pixel in X11, Windows API, .NET, OpenGL, GDK, GRAFOR ... infinite list? makes no sense to me. --Dmitry-kazakov 09:38, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

It seems that the language originating a number of tasks recently is not very respective of security. Something of a worry...

OTOH, we could just redefine the task to something that more languages can do with common utilities/libraries and ignore the fact that this will cause the originator pain. —Dkf 10:53, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

just like any other task, this is based on the typical running environment for your program. However, I have added the line: "The mouse cursor may or may not have to be active in a gui created by your program." —tinku99

So what happens when the typical running environment for a program is an emacs comint buffer? Or a web browser session? (I am thinking that this, like some other tasks here, has very heavy dependencies on the hosting environment. Perhaps such tasks should get a special category, and perhaps such tasks warrant multiple implementations based on different host environments for languages which do not abstract this kind of issue.) --Rdm 18:38, 10 June 2010 (UTC)

If code has dependencies beyond what's guaranteed by the core language, Template:works with and Template:library are used to identify them. As far as it helps illuminate comparative relevant use of platform, implementations, libraries, etc., I very much like to see multiple code examples per language/task pair. The site software isn't very well constructed to make, e.g. comparison-by-library easy, but that is one of my ultimate aims. --Michael Mol 22:52, 10 June 2010 (UTC)

Getting pixel information is a basic task related to "accessibility", "testing", and just "getting things done". Thats what programming is for in the first place. Its not a security problem if your are the owner of the computer, and that is what you want to do. If a particular language can not do the task, it should be put in its ignore list. The task should not be modified to fit that language. —tinku99

I believe every lang able to use OS API should be able; this creates anyway a "strong" system dependency, unless one can achieve the task using portable toolkit; e.g. GTK (GDK exactly?) should make it possible, and the solution should work on every system with GTK...? (Maybe!) If a system allows the existence of a "snapshot" software (to take picture of the whole screen or of a particular window), then this task is not unsecure. --ShinTakezou 10:49, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

Whoops seen now the Tcl solution using xwd to take a snapshot! I think it's a good solution.= --ShinTakezou 10:51, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

MUMPS

I elected to omit MUMPS from the task, even though somebody else somewhere may be able to write code that performs this task. The implementations I am used to work on character cell screens (yes it is an old language). I do have the $X and $Y variables that tell me (mostly) where the cursor is on the screen, but I'm not even sure I can read the device to get what character is there - and I'm fairly certain I can't get color information. Stormneedle 05:54, 2 July 2010 (UTC)