Option To Retain Input Focus On Lowered Windows

Marr wm33 at att.net
Fri Nov 16 21:36:06 CET 2012


On Tuesday 06 March 2012 18:30:09 Marr wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I've been running Xfce (4.6.x, under Slackware 13.x) for over 2 years now
> and really like it -- kudos to all the fine folks who work on it!
> 
> Having said that, there's only 1 thing which is a "show-stopper" for me --
> i.e. something which would have prevented me from being able to use Xfce at
> all had I not found a way around it: the default window manager (xfwm4)
> behavior whereby it switches the window input focus when the current window
> is "lowered".  In other words, when I "lower" a window in the Z-order, I
> want it to _retain_ input focus (with the window frame highlighted), not
> switch focus to the next available window.  (BTW, I always use "Click to
> focus", never "Focus follows mouse".)
> 
> When I first started using Xfce 4.6.x, I simply patched that behavior out
> and re-built.  Presumably, I can continue to do that in the newer 4.8.x
> and 4.10.x releases.  But I think that it might be nice to have this as an
> option, either in the 'Window Manager Tweaks' section of the 'Xfce
> Settings' or even as one of the "hidden" options in a configuration file. 
> I understand that many people might prefer the current behavior, but it
> was a shocker when I first encountered it in Xfce and I cannot imagine
> that I'm the only one who might want the option.
> 
> So, I ask: Any chance for adding such an option in some newer release of
> Xfce? Should I file this as a request on Xfce's Bugzilla?
> 
> Regardless of what can or cannot be done in this area, my deepest gratitude
> to all who develop and distribute Xfce and to all the other Xfce
> contributors! It really is a great and useful desktop environment.
> 
> Regards,
> Bill Marr

(Replying to myself here, and to an old thread, but I wanted to partially 
"close the loop" on this issue, for anyone interested in this functionality 
who might not be subscribed to the Xfce-dev list....)

Based on a discussion in an unrelated thread on the Xfce-dev list, I've now 
submitted my patch to address this issue, including a screenshot showing the 
new option:

   https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=9503

Regards,
Bill Marr


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