Re: [Ayatana] Focus follows pointer (Was: Re: Understanding the menu problem.)

[Philipp Wendler <ubuntu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

Am 31.05.2011 21:13, schrieb Ed Lin:
> On Tue, May 31, 2011 at 8:34 PM, Philipp Wendler
> <ubuntu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> I use focus-follows-mouse, and I find it very annoying when I have to
>> work longer times on machines that don't have it enabled. I don't use
>> the "raise window" feature.
> (....)
> 
> Thank you for this detailed feedback!

Thank you for your interest.

> I still have some troubles understanding how focused but overlapped
> windows are useful in your three cases but obviously it works for you.

Well, I sometimes when I type in certain windows, I don't need to see
the whole window (because I know what will happen, or because a small
part of the window is enough to see). So I can use the screen space to
keep a window in the foreground that I need so see but not interact with
while I am typing in that other window.
I agree that this is definitely a workflow that only an advanced user
would use (and probably even few of them), but for me it saves time and
helps multi-tasking.

> Also I notice most of the tasks you do involve two main "active
> windows". In unity you can drag windows to either side of the screen
> and have them automatically tiled side by side.

Sure, I think it's great. But it works only if you have two windows that
should both occupy half of the screen space. But this is rarely the case
for me.
Also it currently doesn't work with two monitors (yes, I should really
file a bug for this sometimes).

>> A further advantage is that I don't have to think about where in the
>> target window I might click without producing unwanted actions which
>> saves further time (and more important: saving my brain from thinking
>> about something that has nothing to do with what I want to accomplish).
> 
> Couldn't this be solved simply by making all windows behave the same
> way: first click focuses and rises (gets trapped by the WM),
> subsequent clicks get sent to the application window.

Yes, this could make window switching without FFP easier of course.
However, I guess it would be hard to train myself that I can rely on the
first click having no effect (and it would probably hurt when I work on
another machine, so I don't know if I want to train myself to rely on
this at all). Also it would bring the window to the front, of course,
which I often don't want.

>> I don't use the keyboard to switch windows, because I find it annoyingly
>> painful to cycle through all the open windows. Or is there a keyboard
>> shortcut for "please focus that terminal window right here on the left
>> bottom corner of the screen"?
> 
> Not really but an helpful keyboard shortcut in Unity which you might
> have missed is Super("Windows key") followed by a number. Just keep
> the super key pressed for two seconds or so and have a look at the
> launcher ;)

Oh, thanks. I really missed that, but I'll definitely try it out for
some time at least.

>> So please, keep FFP useable!
> 
> I think as long as Ubuntu largely depends on GNOME and other 3rd party
> for its apps you will be able to use it without a global menu and
> therefore keep using FFP. For now this should work:
> 
> sudo apt-get remove appmenu-gtk indicator-applet-appmenu indicator-appmenu

Currently, I'm using unity with global menu (and FFP) on an "evaluation
basis", to see if I can work with it. I really like it for maximized
windows, so my ideal would be to have both. :)

Would it be an option to make the global menu for non-maximized windows
configurable? The window settings dialogue is not that overloaded that
it wouldn't fit in there. (Plus there are settings in this dialogue that
I think are much less important). Or if additional options aren't
welcome, disable it automatically if FFP is enabled?

Greetings, Philipp