When changing workspace, no application has the focus in the workspace (i.e. the application that had the focus keeps it in the old workspace). It is annoying because it is necessary to give the focus with an additional step. I think that the focus should be given to the app that had the focus in the workspace the last time we were in this wokspace.
are you using the pager on the panel to change workspaces? if so, this is normal, as the panel will retain the focus. if you're using a keyboard shortcut or scrolling the mouse, then yeah, sounds like a bug. also - 4.0.x or CVS? edited on: 08-03 20:41
Yes, this problem occurs with mouse scrolling or keyboard shortcut, but not when clicking on the mini-window in the pager. And I am using version 4.O.6. Thank you for your quick response !
I don't see this in CVS. I think this is a WONTFIX bug.
I believe this is fixed, please reopen if it also occurs in 4.2 (beta).
I noticed a different behavior with 4.2 but there is still this problem. Now when clicking on a desktop in the pager it changes the workspace without giving the focus to any app even if I click directly on a mini-window (with 3.8 it would focus the app). And this is the same thing with keyboard (Ctrl-Alt-Left/Right) unless I had given before the focus to an app in each desktop, in this case it works as I would like to. I hope I am understandable ;) Example : 1) I use my browser on desktop 2. 2) I switch to desktop 1... a) ...with Ctrl-Alt-Left I launch two terminals on desktop 1. The second has the focus. Then Ctrl-Alt-Right, my browser has the focus, and when I come back to desktop 1 the second terminal has it so it is OK. I like this behavior. b) ...with mouse on the pager I launch the two terminals and the second has the focus. Then when I come back to desktop 2 with Ctrl-Alt-Right or the mouse my browser doesn't have the focus ! And I would like it to have it. So maybe it is a problem of the panel getting the focus as it was said in the first comment, but why is it normal ? Actually I don't really understand the way the focus is given when changing workspace, it could be more coherent and not depend on the way you change your workspace.
The panel *gets* the focus, this is normal, it's a regular application. If you want to keep focus, either use the pager from the taskbar (the taskbar can't get focus) or just use the keyboard.
Then the panel could not keep the focus ? I don't understand the usefulness of this. With 4.0.x it did the opposite behavior (see my comment #2), could it be possible to keep the best of the two versions ? ;)
Nothing has changed in this regard. If the panel receives the focus, it will keep it since it's sticky (ie shown on all desktops) If you use the pager, you can click on apps to set the focus.
In 4.0, clicking on a mini-window of another desktop in the pager gave the focus to the app, but in 4.2 it just changes the desktop and you need to click another time to give the focus to the app, which is less practical. When the panel has the focus, no app has it, but then when you give the focus to an app and switch to another desktop (with either keyboard or scrolling) no app has the focus in this desktop... I find this annoying.
The panel is sticky, ie it is shown on all desktops. Therefore, if you give the focus to the panel while changing from desktop 1 to 2, the focus remains on the panel (no matter what window had focus on desktop 2 previously) The only and simple answer to your problem is to avoid using the panel to change workspace. And again, it was just like that in Xfce 4.0.
Under Gnome and KDE the panel apparently doesn't get the focus, and after changing desktop there is always an app that has the focus. I don't understand why this is different under XFCE. I've always been desorientated by XFCE's focus handling. I find this illogical : I think that the result should be the same whatever method you use to change desktop. Would it be possible to have the same behavior that KDE and Gnome ?
The Xfce panel is just another regular application, it has nothing special. In KDE and GNOME, the panel is a dock. Right now, that won't change. we are working on improving that, and in the future, the panel will be different, unfortunately that mean an API change for some of the plugins (typically the plugins that require keyboard focus) Jasper, the only way to get rid of this right now would be to make the panel unfocusable like the taskbar. It's technically trivial, but that may break the mini-cmdline plugin (at least). What do you think?
BTW it's a problem with the panel, not with the window manager (or at least, the window manager works as expected)
(In reply to comment #12) > > Jasper, the only way to get rid of this right now would be to make the panel > unfocusable like the taskbar. It's technically trivial, but that may break the > mini-cmdline plugin (at least). What do you think? Yeah, I was thinking about that. The minicmd thing, I can easily fix by making a new release. The problem is with the always on top setting. The behaviour will be different. I can only make the panel always on top (normal dock type behaviour) or always below (dock type + keep below hint). I think this is still preferable, so I would be in favour of changing it. What do you think?
Actually I'm not talking about making the panel a dock, but simply making it unfocusable.
Ah, you're think of implementing what we have experimented the other day on IRC... If so, here is my point: - Make the panel a dock - Keep it on top like any dock window - Remove the layer option - Always apply struts (or partial struts to be precise) - Make transparency optional (<== that one is a problem for the translation freeze) Maybe we should move this discussion to the xfce4-dev list.
Ok, this will be fixed for beta3 (just missed beta2). The panel will not take focus when clicked. Thanks for the report and please reopen when the next release does not fix it.
Ok, great ! Thanks a lot ! :)