Havoc Pennington wrote:
The primary difference between the second behavior (raise new window/window seeking attention) and focussing such a window is that, while it may obscure the focus window, it doesn't steal keyboard focus; therefore it isn't likely that a user will accidentally send keystrokes to the wrong app.... I think the taskbar flashing is better than raising an unfocused window that may then obscure the focus window and be confusing.
As I see it, focus-stealing is the primary thing to avoid here. Having a new window pop up in front of what I'm doing is an annoyance, but then again all interruptions are annoyances, even when they are useful/informative.[1] I might not notice a taskbar flash (might be looking away at the time), but I will certainly notice if an unfocussed window is raised to the top.
So personally I think raise-new/raise-on-urgency-hint are sensible behaviors, and are a reasonable policy choice to offer the user. [2]
Bill[1] - I don't take the phone off the hook when I am working, but it does interrupt me when it rings... [2] - the fact that the WM hints (URGENT/ATTENTION) give semantic info mostly solve the accessibility implications. Focus-stealing is bad for accessibility, but on the other hand a blind user (or low-vision user looking at a magnified sub-section of the screen) needs to be informed that a new app has been raised.