How can I disable/change Alt-Tab?

[Mişu Moldovan]

Sâ, 20 Mai 2006 la 09:15:48 +0200, Olivier Fourdan a scris:
> John Coppens wrote:
> > Yep... Tried that, Mike. In fact, tried several combinations:
> > 
> > In Default:
> > - Assigned <none> to Alt_tab
> > - Assigned SHFT+ALT+Tab
> > 
> > - Added a new definition, and tried the same.
> > 
> > In all cases, Alt_Tab continues to cause the task selector to appear.
> > Must be doing something real stupid here...
> 
> No, you're not, customizing alt+tab is not allowed anymore in xfwm4 4.4.

Oouuch! I cannot believe it... I haven't realized that during my limited testing of Xfce 4.3.x in a virtual Ubuntu Dapper machine. And I was just about to upgrade one of my real machines to Xfce 4.4 beta1... May a ask why this sane behavior was changed?

Customizing the shortcut for cycling windows is a killer feature for me, I'm hardwired to using Alt+` (the key above Tab on the US keyboard) for cycling windows. I've been doing that for a looong time in order to preserve Alt-Tab for completion in Midnight Commander. I cannot think of a single window manager that makes it impossible to change this behavior (except M$ Windows, where I had to replace explorer.exe as a shell with some win32 offspring of Blackbox to get a customized shortcut for cycling windows and many other goodies). I've been using quite a lot of windows manager that didn't prevent this: WMaker, Blackbox, Sawfish, Metacity, Xfwm 4.2.x and I admit I'm pretty much a keyboard oriented user (a mild RSI forced me into that) with custom keyboard shortcuts for everything from cycling windows to changing to the next track in the audio player.

Please, pretty please Olivier, don't hardcode this shortcut. More so, please don't hardcode any shortcut... From what I remember, there's a wonderful shortcut manager in Xfce 4.4 that also lifts the "no more than ten customized shortcuts" limit. And please take into consideration not only users such as John and me, who need Alt-Tab for completion in Midnight Commander, but also disabled users who cannot perform an Alt-Tab at all and need to possibility to adapt shortcuts to their needs. (Yes I know, they will probably use sticky keys, but let's not push anything down their throats, they know better what works for them, with or without sticky keys).

Excuse my long and boring post, but sane keyboard shortcuts are of capital importance to me. I had to use Windows for about six weeks last year and I was frustrated and in pain (physical pain in my right hand) because explorer.exe was impossible to customize to my needs and the use of a mouse was pretty much mandatory. I wholeheartedly recommend the win32 offsprings of Blackbox to any Windows user with RSI.

Thanks,

-- 
     .
 /^)/_/(/
     '
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce/attachments/20060520/34416242/attachment.pgp>