Re: _NET_WM_[GET_|TAKE_|REQUEST_]FOCUS & urgency

[Elijah Newren <newren gmail com>]

On 5/25/05, Luke Schierer <lschiere users sf net> wrote:

<snip>

> I disagree.  As gaim stands, windows get lost, unless you happen to
> see them in the task bar.  We have to make changes to make it "work
> perfectly,"  changes that would not be needed if you simply
> implemented urgency.

How exactly would that help?  If all we did for the urgent hint was
make the taskbar bold, then, considering that is what we do when a new
window doesn't get focus, the users would still be losing windows
according to your experience.  Right?  So, the bug is that our
implementation of DEMAND_ATTENTION is suboptimal.

> > GAIM need not do anything with DEMANDS_ATTENTION -- this hint is managed
> > by the window manager and an application need not concern itself with
> > this hint.  The only case where an application needs to worry about any
> > of this is when it launches new windows by communication out-of-process.
> 
> again, demonstratably false.  For example, see redhat bugs 157270 and
> 157271.  These bugs are going to stay around for quite some time if
> gaim "need not do anything." And others will be marked duplicate of
> them.  I predict there will be quite a few marked duplicate, do you
> disagree?

Personally, I don't think either of those bugs should be filed against
gaim and I'm pretty sure that gaim really need not do anything (other
than perhaps actually filing bugs that we might see with details about
what's wrong/right).  Warren's comments in bug 157270 show that he
doesn't understand the situation in general, but specifically didn't
realize that it is possible to notify people that a window has been
opened without focusing it and sticking it on top.  The bug isn't that
we need to revert behavior; it's that we need to implement a decent
way of notifying people about new windows so that they'll notice it.


Hope this helps,
Elijah