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'Focus follows mouse' and 'New window focus' contradict each other.
Status:
RESOLVED: WONTFIX

Comments

Description g361519 2009-07-04 15:30:18 CEST
Hi,

'Focus follows mouse' and 'New window focus' contradict each other.

How to reproduce:

1. Set the 'Focus follows mouse' and 'New window focus' settings.
2. Spawn a new window, it takes focus even if the mouse is elsewere on the screen, and then it keeps the focus until the mouse is moved over the focused window and off it again.

This is obviously annoying, but if the user turns off 'New window focus' then the window appears underneath all the other windows which is also annoying.

In order to fix this I suggest:

1. There needs to be an extra setting 'New window raise' that raises windows when they are opened without focusing them, as a replacement for 'New window focus' for people who use 'Focus follows mouse'.
2. The 'New window focus' setting needs to be dissabled when 'Focus follows mouse' is enabled.
Comment 1 xface 2009-07-26 17:04:30 CEST
this may be contradictory if the window does not open near the mouse. This simply means there needs to be a priority. The new window event needs to take precedence (as it always did < 4.6.1)

This covers all bases. If you absolutely don't want the new window grabbing focus leave it off. If you do this setting takes priority until you create another focus changing event with the mouse. 

That is completely logical and consistent provided that the new window is created at the top of the stack and not at the bottom .

That is the real issue here and is covered by #5479
Comment 2 Olivier Fourdan editbugs 2009-07-27 05:20:27 CEST
(In reply to comment #0)
> 'Focus follows mouse' and 'New window focus' contradict each other.

No contradiction here. What is described here is your own opinion rather than a problem.

> 1. There needs to be an extra setting 'New window raise' that raises windows
> when they are opened without focusing them, as a replacement for 'New window
> focus' for people who use 'Focus follows mouse'.
> 2. The 'New window focus' setting needs to be dissabled when 'Focus follows
> mouse' is enabled.

No, I really want to avoid adding yet another new setting for that. Users are already confused by existing settings.
Comment 3 Jarno Suni 2009-10-07 01:32:04 CEST
(In reply to comment #2)
> (In reply to comment #0)
> > 'Focus follows mouse' and 'New window focus' contradict each other.
> 
> No contradiction here. What is described here is your own opinion rather than a
> problem.

Well, the reporter interprets the "Focus follows mouse" so that focus should be switched to/kept in the topmost window below the mouse cursor. I think that is perfectly sensible interpretation. I interpreted it so in a bug 4795 comment #22. And if the cursor does not happen to be on the new window, "New window focus" contradicts with that policy.

> > 1. There needs to be an extra setting 'New window raise' that raises windows
> > when they are opened without focusing them, as a replacement for 'New window
> > focus' for people who use 'Focus follows mouse'.
> > 2. The 'New window focus' setting needs to be dissabled when 'Focus follows
> > mouse' is enabled.
> 
> No, I really want to avoid adding yet another new setting for that. Users are
> already confused by existing settings.

Mr. Fourdan, do you know any Xfce user that wants to open all new windows obscured in desktop (except the first one opened)? Even I don't want that, although I filed the bug 4795. (I was looking for a way to deal with applications that take a while to start and that steal focus, but placing everything obscured is too raw, I think now.) I would not want e.g. Firefox to open its preferences window underneath the focused maximized browser window.

If there are too many settings for the window manager, could you consider removing the New window focus setting? A new window would be risen, if focus stealing prevention does not prevent it. A new window would be focused, if neither focus stealing prevention nor focus follows mouse policy rule else.
Comment 4 Olivier Fourdan editbugs 2009-10-07 10:05:04 CEST
(In reply to comment #3)

> Mr. Fourdan, do you know any Xfce user that wants to open all new windows
> obscured in desktop (except the first one opened)? Even I don't want that,
> although I filed the bug 4795.

bug 4795 is fixed now in git.

> If there are too many settings for the window manager, could you consider
> removing the New window focus setting? A new window would be risen, if focus
> stealing prevention does not prevent it. A new window would be focused, if
> neither focus stealing prevention nor focus follows mouse policy rule else.

I'd wish but experience shows that removing this option will upset a bunch of vocal users and I am tired of that, so that will not happen.
Comment 5 Jarno Suni 2009-10-08 06:51:02 CEST
(In reply to comment #4)
> I'd wish but experience shows that removing this option will upset a bunch of
> vocal users and I am tired of that, so that will not happen.

Oh, I didn't know that. On the other hand, the current solution does upset a bunch of vocal users, too, as seen in Bug 5479 and in Xfce mailing list archive in thread "4.6: new windows now start on bottom", and maybe the solution I proposed would make them happy.
Comment 6 Jarno Suni 2009-10-15 11:03:25 CEST
(In reply to comment #5)
> (In reply to comment #4)
> > I'd wish but experience shows that removing this option will upset a bunch of
> > vocal users and I am tired of that, so that will not happen.
> 
> Oh, I didn't know that. On the other hand, the current solution does upset a
> bunch of vocal users, too, as seen in Bug 5479 and in Xfce mailing list archive
> in thread "4.6: new windows now start on bottom", and maybe the solution I
> proposed would make them happy.

Not all of them would be happy: someone wants to have new window focus disabled always, even if "focus follows mouse" is selected and a new window opens under the pointer
( https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xfwm4/+bug/366683/comments/4 )

Bug #5525

Reported by:
g361519
Reported on: 2009-07-04
Last modified on: 2009-10-15

People

Assignee:
Olivier Fourdan
CC List:
2 users

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