Re: [xmonad] Emacs frame with STRUT+DOCK doesn't get keyboard focus

2011/6/7 Ted Zlatanov :

On Tue, 7 Jun 2011 14:14:34 -0400 Brandon Allbery wrote: BA> 2011/6/7 Ted Zlatanov :

...

...

OK, so it's not a bug?  It seems unreasonable to block docks from getting the keyboard focus.  Why does XMonad do it and others don't?

BA> I suspect it's mostly a matter of cargo cult coding:  people blindly BA> copying code without really understanding what it does.  The author of BA> ManageHelpers understood well enough to include other possibilities.

OK, but I'm talking about the default settings.  Is it reasonable to block docks from getting the keyboard focus by default?  What is gained by that?  Or is there no default and my configuration is the problem?

Most docks don't expect keyboard input directly and either open a new window or explicitly request input focus (e.g. gnome mini-commander applet), so users get confused when input focus goes to a dock especially in click-to-focus mode. I think one of the early minimalist docks did the wrong thing with input focus, too. In any case, it's somewhat unusual for a dock to want the input focus, and strange things can happen if you grant it. (Even in newer ones; I had some odd behavior from KDE4's Plasma while working on my freedesktop.org extensions due to unexpected input focus.)

BA> This replaces the "manageDocks" in manageHook, but you still need the BA> rest of the ManageDocks machinery to handle the struts.

OK.  Do you want me to open a bug or a wishlist item for this to remind you to put that functionality in the core?

Iyt wouldn't go into core, it would go into contrib with ManagDocks and ManageHelpers. I don't need a bug for it though (well, there already is one) as it's in my own to-dos and I'm using xmonad regularly enough that just use is enough of a reminder that it's incomplete. :)