[Xfce-bugs] [XFCE 0000291]: gaim 'raise on event' hint steals focus

[xfce-bugs at xfce.org]

A BUGNOTE has been added to this bug.
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http://bugs.xfce.org/view_bug_page.php?f_id=291
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Reporter:                   marcelb
Handler:                    
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Project:                    XFCE
Bug ID:                     0000291
Category:                   xfwm
Reproducibility:            always
Severity:                   major
Priority:                   normal
Status:                     new
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Date Submitted:             2004-08-11 05:47 GMT
Last Modified:              2004-08-15 21:24 GMT
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Summary:                    gaim 'raise on event' hint steals focus
Description: 
When the Gaim option 'Raise On Events' is enabled, any such occurence
steals the focus from the current widget and puts it in the gaim input.
The desired behaviour is to have the window raised to the top pane but not
actually steal focus from the current application. This occurs since Gaim
0.81 (so it clearly stems from a code change of theirs) but I believe it
is the window manager's responsibility to control the focus appropriately.
Thus, either an option to specify the desired behavior or a default to
ignore focus requests in such a situation should be added.
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 olivier - 2004-08-15 21:04 GMT 
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metacity works the same, I don't see any bug on our side here.

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 marcelb - 2004-08-15 21:14 GMT 
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i think the fact that any application can steal focus without any control
by the user could be considered undesired behavior. Either in Gaim or XFCE
this should be fixed/configurable, and since i'm sure gaim isn't the only
app that does this, xfce sounds like the better place.

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 olivier - 2004-08-15 21:24 GMT 
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yes and no. The WM cannot prevent an application from stealing focus (ie,
the ap called "XSetInputFocus" on one of its window, then no luck.)

The WM is resposible for focusing windows when new window appear, and
there is a mechanism that could prevent focus stealing in that case. But
that's not the case here, it's not a new window that is being created, so
I think gaim is setting focus itself (or even gtk might be doing it on its
behalf)

So in a nushell, if an app really wants to steal focus, there is not much
the WM can do (yeah, it could receive the focus event and revert it, but
that would be a real hack IMO)