Alternate And Winding Fill Modes – Explanation Not Clear

[scrutinizer]

1. Exactly, what area does "the fill region" in these two examples pinpoint?
2.  Where's the "inside" and "outside" the fill region in the 2 shapes?
3.  Where's the "segments within the given shape"?
4. Are " the segments of the shape ...the ray crosses through" intersection points?

[lacerto]

The idea can be better understood by using these kinds of shapes and exposing the curve directions:

a) Winding mode (bottom left shape, the inner non-filled area counts as zero, every other region as non-zero (I'd count the directions as seeing them clock and counterclockwise, rather than in terms of left and right):

b) Winding mode (bottom right shape has the curve direction reversed in the other segment, the inner region counting as zero):

c) Alternate fill mode: curve directions are irrelevant, fill-non-fill state determined by odd-even rule:

[scrutinizer]

Thanks but I still don't get the mechanics, all I see is the illustrations of the fact that has already happened and for this reason it didn't give better understanding. To understand what is what in that explanation I'd like to get the answers to my questions exactly as I laid them down, responding to every bullet point question.

[lacerto]

There are plenty of examples on the Internet of vector graphics fill rule, so I suggest you search for topics that demonstrate it. E.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonzero-rule.

The following shows the counting principle of the winding rule. The red figures (numbers) show the sum of "winding" for each fillable (enclosed) region in the image. Only regions that have zero as the sum will be left unfilled (they are "outside", "empty"). The red vector starting from the square red node indicating the first node shows the direction of the curve, and I have added arrows and cycles that show direction and "winding" (clockwise or counterclockwise; or left or right in relation to the ray end pointing to infinity) at the point the "rays" (drawn with curves having a circle at the staring point within a region, and an arrow point to infinity) cross the segments: