Compositing

Summary
Compose the desktop by compositing together separate graphical windows

At some point I had to look into what “compositing” means in the context of computer graphics and windowing systems. This is a good defintion I found:

“The desktop should employ a composited painting model. It must be possible to compose the desktop by compositing together separate graphical windows using alpha blending and antialiasing. Individual windows should be able to seamlessly animate with no tearing, even in this composited model.”—GDI+

Some links:

• Longhorn compositing
• Compositing Digital Images by Porter&Duff.
• Computer Graphics Timeline