appName =? "xmobar" -->
(ask >>=
\win -> liftX (withDisplay $ \dpy -> io $ raiseWindow dpy win) >>
idHook)
If the .xmobarrc has lowerOnStart set to True, the above doesn't help. (Nor does the version with doFloat.)
It wouldn't; the lowerOnStart happens concurrently, and probably (but not certainly) after the above. I am a bit confused about how something that typechecked in ghci here didn't work, but I'm still bringing this machine back toward something resembling sanity and in particular its ghc and/or xmonad may be slightly deranged (I'm waiting on the HP update that was supposed to happen today).
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