Re: panel focus

[Calum Benson <calum benson sun com>]

Bill Haneman wrote:
> 
> Seth Nickell wrote:
>
> > Can we only do this weird focus
> > voodoo on keyboard activation? i.e. you can only focus the panel using
> > the keyboard (or maybe mouse clicks *directly* on the panel with no
> > dragging or anything).
> 
> Well, for one thing I don't believe that a mouse click on an applet
> should focus the panel; e.g. the panel should only get "lighter" if
> you click on the panel itself or keynav to it, not if you focus
> a child of the panel.

I'd be happy enough with that too.


> However I do think that if you click on the panel, your app window
> should defocus; otherwise we are violating the premise that the panel
> is just a "special app" rather than a part of the WM.

I think the more salient point here is that if we don't defocus the app
window when a panel or panel object has focus, it gives a misleading
visual cue that the app is still receiving keyboard focus, which it most
certainly isn't-- the panel is, and no amount of jiggery-pokery will
send your keypresses to the apparently-focused application.

Just out of interest, I'm fiddling desperately with Windows XP (*cough*)
here to see how it handles the situation.  There doesn't appear to be a
way to give the panel itself keyboard focus, but certainly while any
objects *on* the panel (taskbar) are focused, all app windows on the
desktop are de-focused for the duration.

What does MacOS X do in this situation with its dock thingy?  (Knowing
MacOS, I suspect the answer is "you can't go near it unless you have a
mouse", but I'm prepared to be pleasantly surprised).

Cheeri,
Calum.

-- 
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson ireland sun com    Desktop Engineering Group
http://www.sun.ie                      +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems