It seems to be, that the rule ought to be:
- “if the operator’s mouse/keyboard event which originally spawned the new window is still the last one generated, then it may grab focus”
In other words, if the user is WAITING on a window to pop up, then it takes focus. But otherwise (such as the user typing in another document) it does NOT take focus.
Of course, in this context, I refer to only key-down and mouse-down events, not passive events like mouse movement.
I prefer “focus follows mouse”. The pointer is my indicator to the computer as to where my attention is. If a window is not under the pointer, it shouldn’t have focus.
Somebody downvoted this statement of a personal preference? wtf.
I wonder, if there was a “boo” or “not me” button next to the down-vote, maybe it would deflect such action (even if it did nothing but remember it’s state).
Apparently PieFed allows emoji reactions. That might be more appropriate. But a thumbs down would still discourage reasonable comments.
I suspect because of lurch’s point that focus can still be stolen, and still cause issue.
(I didn’t downvote, just observing)
Maybe. It’s just one of those things that bugs me about social media: downvotes without comments discourage interaction and weaken our community.
depending on type of window management it can appear above another window under your mouse cursor, in which case it stole the focus. imagine you’re about to click a download button and instead a window with a delete prompt appears above the button and you confirm that instead. my point is: focus settings alone don’t fix this.
Don’t worry, Microsoft will solve it soon with an always-on camera, eye tracking and AI.
RESUME VIEWING
It’s not always clear what event created child windows.
However, it is solved in many compositors / window managers. For example, per default Gnome will not focus a window from another app than the one you’re using and show a notification instead.
