Re: [wmii] Sloppy focus?

On Mar 24, 2006, at 6:37 AM, Uriel wrote:

>> Clearly rewriting X isn't an option, and living with "click to
>> focus" is
>> a real pain for some irritating mouse-driven applications... I'm
>> just
>> surprised, because I thought the implementation in wmii-2.5 was more
>> than good enough.
>
> Focus handling in wmii has always been embarrassing.
>
> In 2.5 it is very common to have have the focus stick to the wrong
> window while the mouse is in another, and then not even clicking on
> that window makes keyboard focus change. (Sometimes the window with
> the stuck focus is not even in the current workspace)
>
> There are many other examples of annoying and broken focus behaviour,
> I don't care what focus model is implemented, but it should be
> RELIABLE!

Fair enough. I have a problem recently where sometimes clicking
anywhere in a frame gives it focus, and other times I need to click
on the top of the frame. I would like to be able to click anywhere in
the frame for any occasion.

As for a focus model, I prefer a click-to-focus model with clicks in
the frame being passed to the client. I think this is the best method
as I can't accidently tap my trackpad and start typing my root
password into my IRC client (I've done it and sent it). It also lets
you use apps like the Gimp (ugh...) easily. This is the same model
employed by OS X, although OS X apps have the luxury of knowing the
window management model, and can therefore decide which things are
clickable when the window does not have focus (such as the stop
button in a browser) and which things aren't (such as the links on
the page). What allows click-through isn't perfectly predicable, but
OS X does a fairly good job (with the Finder, which badly needs to be
rewritten, generally being the exception).

I'm not sure if X allows for similar things to be done. If not, I'd
like the option of a focus-under-mouse mode (which, if I can ever
figure out how to get X to disable my trackpad when my trackball is
plugged in like I do in OS X, would be ideal). If it would be
possible to switch mouse focus (so I can click buttons) but not
keyboard focus (so I can't type things until I click), that would be
*perfect*. Is this possible? It gives the safety of click-to-focus
and the speed of focus-under-mouse, and is predictable.

FWIW, I also think it would be cute to be able to click a window
title and have it expand when in stack mode. This is not critical,
especially since the title bars tend to jump around which is fine for
keyboard navigation but sucks for a mouse driven interface. Just an
idea though.

- John
Received on Fri Mar 24 2006 - 19:01:20 UTC