[openbeos] Re: inconsistency?
- From: "Kevin Field" <kev@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 08:10:00 -0400 EDT
> > 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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