compiz team mailing list archive

[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

JaSauders, when a window opens or asks for focus, the window manager has
to decide whether focusing it is a good idea.

If you choose an item in an indicator menu, wanting to see a particular
window, obviously it should be focused, right? Well, no. For example,
when I choose the date item in the clock menu, Evolution takes 31
seconds to launch and open its window. If I get bored and continue
typing this comment in Firefox in the meantime, I don't want the
Evolution window to be focused when it eventually opens, because that
would mean some of my typing would go into the wrong window.

So, a window should be focused if you don't do anything -- or you aren't
*about to* do anything -- between the time you ask for it and the time
it opens. Simple enough, right? Well, no. Because the window manager
usually doesn't know (A) exactly what action of yours -- if any --
caused the window to open in the first place, or (B) whether you are
about to do something. (It can't see your finger getting ready to press
a key, for example.) The fixes for this bug address (A), by including
the timestamp of your menu selection with the request to launch a
particular app. But sometimes that isn't possible, often it isn't
supplied even when it is possible, and either way, that still doesn't
address (B).

So the focus-prevention-level setting is a dial for how eager the window
manager should be in granting focus requests. The higher it is, the more
often you'll get focus sticking -- a window failing to take focus when
you expect it to. But the lower it is, the more often you'll get focus
stealing -- one window taking focus while you are trying to use another.

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of compiz
packagers, which is subscribed to compiz in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/627195

Title:
  Window management - Apps raised from indicators sometimes dont have
  the focus

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