[openbeos] Re: inconsistency?

> >     Now, I have no problem with that - as long as one of 
> > application's 
> > windows has the focus(we're working with it).
> >     I don't like when I'm working with one window belonging to 
> > application 
> > X and a window belonging to application Y which already has a 
> > window, 
> > pops in front of the one I'm working with.
> >     I'm proposing the 2+nd/rd/th window of an application be shown 
> > in 
> > front 
> > of the previous ones. If all application's windows are hidden, it's 
> > shown behind 
> > the one which has focus.
> 
> I don't particularly like that, because even if a window has focus, 
> it 
> doesn't mean I am working with it. For example, when I have an open 
> browser window with some news article in it, but I am currently on 
> the 
> phone, eating, or busy with anything else, it wouldn't make that much 
> sense for that window to open in the background.
> I would like an intelligent system much better: if you are currently 
> typing something in a window, that window shouldn't lose focus - in 
> that case, I would prefer the other window to open in the background 
> or 
> in a way that I don't lose my input in the new window.
> 
> I would think that special support of a flag like this would actually 
> create an inconsistent behaviour for the user, as he cannot easily 
> determine why one window was created in the background, while the 
> other 
> one is still annoying him. Having a mechanism that detects current 
> and 
> active input would be defensive: it would only come to action when 
> the 
> user would be annoyed if it didn't.

Maybe we should borrow something from the Screen Saver kit?  If we had 
that don't-interfere flag, every app would have to implement a system 
just like the functionality of a screen saver timeout.  It wouldn't 
have the same time setting or criteria for (de)activation, but this way 
the behaviour would be standardized across all apps.

Kev

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