needs a focus-follows-mouse option

[mnemote]

Focus-follows-mouse goes well with tiling window managers, saves clicking when switching back and forth between windows. Since windows don't get overlapped all the time you don't need to pop them to the top of the pile all the time. Of course, not everyone might like this, which introduces the horrible spectre of a config file, but that was bound to happen eventually, right?

[Alysander]

Sounds reasonable!

It can be a commandline option so we can postpone the config file (making the .desktop file the config essentially). What other kinds of edge cases are there for focussing? Do new dialogs still expect to be focussed or are there any other things that need to be considered?

I guess we need to track the enterNotify/leaveNotify or ideally focusIn/Out events to make sure that the frame looks focussed correctly but it's probably not too hard to make it work.

[mnemote]

On 04/11/15 10:24, Alysander Stanley wrote:

Sounds reasonable!

It can be a commandline option so we can postpone the config file
(making the .desktop file the config essentially). What other kinds of
edge cases are there for focussing? Do new dialogs still expect to be
focussed or are there any other things that need to be considered?

I had a thought about this, it ties in with the problem I mentioned with
popping up new windows when the screen is totally tiled ... how does the
WM work out where to put them? Just about any way it chooses is annoying.

But here's a thought ... maybe all these new windows, transitory or not,
should pop up in floating mode until they're dragged off to the side of
the screen, when the WM can pick (from the edge you stuck them against)
where to fit them into the tiling.

This might also make the Tiling / Floating / Etc menu less important,
which I like the idea of because it is kind of ugly.

I guess we need to track the enterNotify/leaveNotify or ideally
focusIn/Out events to make sure that the frame looks focussed
correctly but it's probably not too hard to make it work.

Yep, that's pretty much how it works. Once you get used to it it seems
really odd to have to click a window to focus it!

-----N

Nick Moore [email protected] 0409 656 267
Mnemote Pty Ltd http://mnemote.com/

[Alysander]

My conclusion is to definitely add the different focussing modes and that's what this issue is about. But I'm keen to argue about everything else still!

mnemote commented 3 days ago
I had a thought about this, it ties in with the problem I mentioned with
popping up new windows when the screen is totally tiled ... how does the
WM work out where to put them? Just about any way it chooses is annoying.

I think there are many use cases were placing a new window into a tiled layout is not
annoying and actually helpful. If you have plenty of available screen space, placing the new window there saves you the step of moving it from on top of another window. Metacity and other floating window manager generally attempt to do this. Unlike other wm's, Lunchbox then makes it easier to resize them both at the same time.

At the moment I am working on solutions to make tiled layouts feel more fluid and easy. One problem is that if you open up the GIMP at the moment it has a small tiled toolbox in the middle of the screen and it will prevent you from enlarging your main image because it's already at a minimum size. This case will be fixed by allowing minimum sized windows to be pushed around. #5

Another case is if you want to reorder windows. The window menu solves this to a large degree by allowing any window to swap places with another. This is probably the quickest thing for a user to do.
I am also going to allow windows to be dropped onto each others title menu #13 and to be dragged out of the title menu into open spaces #15. This might be a bit more intuitive (it's based on well understood tab behaviour) and more similar to the temporary floating layout mode you propose since there is the action of dragging a window to each area you want it to go.

In some cases you don't want the windows to take each others sizes so I'm thinking about how to solve that. I definitely don't always want swapped windows to attempt to take on
each others sizes in all cases (and they often can't).

But here's a thought ... maybe all these new windows, transitory or not,
should pop up in floating mode until they're dragged off to the side of
the screen, when the WM can pick (from the edge you stuck them against)
where to fit them into the tiling.

Interesting thought but I really like the resize against the screen behaviour and
I think having small floating windows against the edge of the screen is an important use case.

This might also make the Tiling / Floating / Etc menu less important,
which I like the idea of because it is kind of ugly.

hehe... yeah. Maybe a new theme could help?