When I upgraded to 3.4.7 the new way of handling _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW appeared little annoying.
For example:
I have my IRC client on desktop 1 and firefox3 on desktop 2, when I click a link in IRC it opens a new tab in firefox3. So what happens here?
Before before (firefox 2): nothing happens, the tab opens quietly in background and I change my desktop manually, OK
Before (prior 3.4.7): my desktop automagically changes to 2 and I see my newly opened tab, really nice
Now: firefox3 JUMPS to desktop 1 and I have to manually send it back to 2 every time, not too nice
Of course this is just the way I'm used and not happy about this change but lets face it, ob is known for it flexibility so why not this?
We had a little discussion about this on IRC and here are some thoughts how this should be configurable at least:
* pull the activated window to current desktop (current and the default?)
* nothing happens
* go to desktop (old way)
* raise active if on desktop
And again I thank you the developers for this fine product and hope to see this in a future release!
saw this on the ml earlier today,
From: Jacek Sowiński <mruwek.debian@vcf.pl>
Reply-To: openbox@icculus.org
To: openbox@icculus.org
Subject: [openbox] Re: Firefox 3.0 beta 5 is changing desktops
On Fri, 9 May 2008 09:37:48 +0200 Roman Pořízka wrote:
> Is this bug or new feature?
Hi.
It is Firefox feature and on clear GNOME I've noticed same behaviour. To
make him less obtrusive switch:
browser.tabs.loadDivertedInBackground
from false to true.
Regards.
Jacek Sowiński aka 'mruwek'
Also VLC seems to does this when watching digital television and some of the commercials run in different resolutions. When VLC changes the format it jumps to the current desktop.
On commercial break I usually surf the web so I noticed this quite quickly.
As with firefox it would be wanted to jump to the desktop where a new link is opened but with vlc I would like to ignore this completely. So maybe possibility to change this per-app also on side with global default?
Maybe it would be better if you filed bugs with these apps so they follow the standard, which is made so that you don't have to use silly per-app workarounds for different behaviours.
I have to say I really dislike this behavior as well. I can't think of a single situation where this behavior would be desirable. I understand that you are trying to follow standards and it is one of the reasons I love openbox. I also think following standards where they make sense is a smart idea. Not every idea standards committees have are great. I much preferred how openbox worked prior to 3.4.6 where It left my windows active state alone. The trick Toni mentions does work in some cases but when you have another box pop up, like for example to accept a cookie or not at the same time the link launches it no longer works. Another thing about this even If i tell Firefox not longer to give new tabs focus to avoid it switching desktops, it breaks functionality that I liked using before in firefox just to avoid openbox giving it focus. If this is truly a bug in how firefox follows the standard, could you be kind enough to point me to where I could read up on how it should work?
Toni, If this is bothering you as it is me maybe we could both complain some to the bug report I found here.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=392721
I'm not using vlc myself, but If you start a bug there I would be happy to back you up in any way possible.
Created attachment 1936[details]
Proposed patch
I was annoyed enough by that to write a patch, and it's easier for me to modify and recompile openbox than firefox.
This one is against git, and not much tested. I have another one against 3.4.7.2 as shipped by ubuntu.
Created attachment 1937[details]
Same as previous patch, backported to 3.4.7.2
This is a backported version to 3.4.7.2 (as shipped by ubuntu) that I've been using for about two weeks on my laptops, seems to work.
I'd love an option that makes Openbox deny any attempted workspace change by a window/application - I can't think of a single situation where I would actually want this to happen.
Like the submitter I found the new Firefox behaviour of warping to the active workspace whenever it was asked to load a link very annoing (it's like web popup windows all over again), but have been using the loadDivertedInBackground workaround and that's done the trick well enough. However, now I've replaced Firefox with Chromium and I can't find a similar config option there, so it appears I'm screwed...
Tore
Created attachment 1936 [details] Proposed patch I was annoyed enough by that to write a patch, and it's easier for me to modify and recompile openbox than firefox. This one is against git, and not much tested. I have another one against 3.4.7.2 as shipped by ubuntu.Created attachment 1937 [details] Same as previous patch, backported to 3.4.7.2 This is a backported version to 3.4.7.2 (as shipped by ubuntu) that I've been using for about two weeks on my laptops, seems to work.