Bug#524711: xfwm4: New window placement problem

[Torquil Macdonald Sørensen]

Package: xfwm4
Version: 4.6.0-2
Severity: normal

Hi! I just noticed soething about the new window placement behaviour of
xfwm4 that I didn't like. I had the xfce audio mixer window up, and was going
to adjust the volume by dragging one of the volume faders. Adjusting the fader
is a quick action, so to save time I started Firefox immediately before,
hoping to adjust the fader while Firefox was starting up, i.e. before its
window would appear. I was a bit slow, so Firefox appeared while I was
dragging the fader (i.e. with the mouse button depressed on the fader, and
the mouse moving).

I think that normally, the Firefox window should not have been allowed to
cover the audio mixer window in that situation. Looking through the xfwm4
settings, I couldn't find a setting to adjust this.

In short, a new window should not cover an existing window if the user is
executing an action in the existing window at that particular time (e.g.
keyboard button depressed in some text field, mouse button depressed on some
button/or a fader as in this case). In that case it should instead appear
underneath, or wait until the action is finished (mouse button released,
keyboard button released..).

Not sure if this is a bug report or wishlist, I guess it depends on what the
xfwm4 author originally intended.

Best regards
Torquil Sørensen

-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
APT prefers unstable
APT policy: (700, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.29-1-686 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages xfwm4 depends on:
ii libc6 2.9-7 GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii libdbus-glib-1-2 0.80-3 simple interprocess messaging syst
ii libglade2-0 1:2.6.4-1 library to load .glade files at ru
ii libglib2.0-0 2.20.1-1 The GLib library of C routines
ii libgtk2.0-0 2.16.1-2 The GTK+ graphical user interface
ii libpango1.0-0 1.24.0-3+b1 Layout and rendering of internatio
ii libstartup-notification0 0.10-1 library for program launch feedbac
ii libwnck22 2.24.2-2 Window Navigator Construction Kit
ii libx11-6 2:1.2.1-1 X11 client-side library
ii libxcomposite1 1:0.4.0-3 X11 Composite extension library
ii libxdamage1 1:1.1.1-4 X11 damaged region extension libra
ii libxext6 2:1.0.4-1 X11 miscellaneous extension librar
ii libxfce4util4 4.6.0-2 Utility functions library for Xfce
ii libxfcegui4-4 4.6.0-2 Basic GUI C functions for Xfce4
ii libxfconf-0-2 4.6.0-3 Client library for Xfce4 configure
ii libxfixes3 1:4.0.3-2 X11 miscellaneous 'fixes' extensio
ii libxrandr2 2:1.3.0-2 X11 RandR extension library
ii libxrender1 1:0.9.4-2 X Rendering Extension client libra

Versions of packages xfwm4 recommends:
ii librsvg2-common 2.22.3-2 SAX-based renderer library for SVG
pn xfwm4-themes <none> (no description available)

Versions of packages xfwm4 suggests:
ii xfce4 4.6.0.1 Meta-package for the Xfce Lightwei

-- no debconf information

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[Yves-Alexis Perez]

On dim, 2009-04-19 at 13:20 +0200, Torquil Macdonald Sørensen wrote:
>
> In short, a new window should not cover an existing window if the user is
> executing an action in the existing window at that particular time (e.g.
> keyboard button depressed in some text field, mouse button depressed on some
> button/or a fader as in this case). In that case it should instead appear
> underneath, or wait until the action is finished (mouse button released,
> keyboard button released..).
>

How is configured the focus stuff? Especially things like focus follow
mouse, new window focus, raise on focs (in wm settings / focus) and
focus stealing prevention (wm tweaks / focus).

Can you reproduce with something else than firefox, which is known to be
terribly crappy when it comes to focus stealing.

Cheers,
--
Yves-Alexis

[Torquil Macdonald Sørensen]

Hi! Yes it is the same for other programs also, not just firefox. E.g.
with Gimp it is the same result in the mixer fader experiment. My focus
settings are:

Ordinary WM settings:

1) Focus follows mouse: yes
2) Automatically give focus to newly started applications: yes
3) Automatically raise windows when they receive focus: no
4) Raise on click: yes

WM tweaks focus settings:

5) Activate focus stealing prevention: yes
6) Honour standard ICCCM focus hint: yes

When I turn off 2), all new windows appear underneath, which is not what
I want. I would like new windows to appear on top, but not above (and
therefore cover, and take mouse/keyboard focus) a window that is
currently in the middle of a mouse/keyboard action.

And an observation regarding keyboard focus:

In a text editor (I used geany for this), I hold a keyboard button down
so that it writes a lot of characters, e.g. keeping the d key down for
"eternity" :-). When I start xfce4-terminal while keeping the d-key down
(clicking on my XFCE panel terminal-shortcut), the d-characters start to
appear in the terminal window instead, which has appeared above the
geany window.

Best regards
Torquil Sørensen

--

[Yves-Alexis Perez]

On dim, 2009-04-19 at 16:47 +0200, Torquil Macdonald Sørensen wrote:
> Hi! Yes it is the same for other programs also, not just firefox. E.g.
> with Gimp it is the same result in the mixer fader experiment. My focus
> settings are:

Hmhm, it seems I get the same kind of behavior with the mixer, but not
with others. Do you reproduce this with other stuff or is it only with
the mixer (which might have a specific problem then)

>
> Ordinary WM settings:
>
> 1) Focus follows mouse: yes
> 2) Automatically give focus to newly started applications: yes
> 3) Automatically raise windows when they receive focus: no
> 4) Raise on click: yes
>
> WM tweaks focus settings:
>
> 5) Activate focus stealing prevention: yes
> 6) Honour standard ICCCM focus hint: yes
>

Ok.

> When I turn off 2), all new windows appear underneath, which is not what
> I want. I would like new windows to appear on top, but not above (and
> therefore cover, and take mouse/keyboard focus) a window that is
> currently in the middle of a mouse/keyboard action.

Well, then you don't want it “on top”. And basically a window can be on
top but not have focus. (yes I know, this is really hard, and I guess
it's harder for window manager developers :) )

Cheers,
--
Yves-Alexis