Xfce Forum

ddeeff

Member

Registered: 2012-05-02

Posts: 2

Allow focucs stealing only for applications that start quickly

One thing that irks me is focus stealing. It really bothers me that I can be looking at the keyboard and typing, blissfully ignorant that the focus has changed. Firefox has plagued me with this issue for years with its password manager "type in your password" popup.

The thing I love about XFCE, and why I use it, is its customisation options. One such option is that you can chose whether or not to let new applications steal the focus from the current focused application. This is a fantastic feature, but I don't like either of the options. I seem to subconsciously categorise programs into two types - those lightweight enough to appear almost instantaneously on-screen, and those that take a few seconds to get going. With the first type, I want focus immediately so that I can begin to use the program. With the second type, I don't want the focus to change because I tend to distract myself with something else while the program is loading and don't want to be interrupted.
Therefore, when the program starts instantaneously, I want the focus to change; when the program doesn't start immediately, I don't want the focus to change.

I propose a feature where you can set a grace period where a new program is allowed to steal focus - to clarify, if the program takes longer to start than the grace period, then it may not steal focus.

Does anyone else feel they would benefit from such a feature?
Is this even feasible? I'm no programmer - only some incredi-basic experience in php and java.

Apologies if others have suggested this before (I only did a quick search), or if this is in 4.10 - I'm waiting for a ppa.

Last edited by ddeeff (2012-05-02 19:45:55)