Hi,

Normally, the last focussed window gets the focus when you close an active window, but now it seems that when I close a focussed window, nothing gets the focus and I find it rather irritating coz I have to either click or alt-tab again to get to the previous window. I seem to only have this problem after updating to 24.7b4 from indiestep. Is this a problem inherent to this built? can anyone confirm/ deny this? thx

while reading this, I opened the "step.rc" (WIN + S) and closed it with the mouse. the focus returned to firebird.
it seems to work

what os do you use? what theme do you use? what vwm do you use? these are all helpful pieces of information

Currently xij on WinXP... although it does seem that sometimes the focus does switch back and using some other themes also gave no probs. But using Indiestep with xij definitely didn't give this focussing prob so I guess it's some compatibility thing, though I can't seem to pinpoint what it is. Oh well, no biggie.

eXpiation: still using xij? it's nothing but evil trouble--you've just reminded me of its instability and accompanying restoration ritual I go through almost daily now :/

But here (using rabidvwm's hide task on switch), focus returns to the last window on the current desktop. xij does use VWMFocusLast.

If you aren't hiding tasks on switch (xij's "Toggle Per-desk Tasks"), then the problem would be that a window on another desk is getting focus but it's not switching desks. The only way I think you can have this behavior is to set VWMSwitchOnAnyFocus true, but that is intolerable IMO without hiding tasks on switch (using it with hiding tasks gives no effect, I think).

Hidden windows can't gain focus.

VWMFocusLast/FocusTop should only make a difference when you are switching desktops.

If you close the last window on a desktop, the VWM might steal focus itself to prevent switching desks with VWMSwitchOnAnyFocus. I don't remember if it does that without this set, but it looks like it does.

an a different, but somewhat related topic:
hidden windows may not be able to gain focus, but my windows (on a somewhat regular basis) do LOSE focus, sometimes giving focus to another app on the same desktop, and sometimes giving focus to nothing (or at least nothing on the current desktop). this only happens using rabidvwm (which is still the best vwm imho, despite this very annoying bug).

on .24.7? reproducibly? Can you tell me what theme you're using or work with me to fix it?

I've heard that rabidvwm does weird things with focus, but I don't think I've ever experienced them.

it happened on .24.6 and now on .24.7, but it seems to be a little worse now. it seems to happen on any theme which I use rabidvwm on. if you give me your icq number (if you have icq) I would be happy to work on it with you. sometimes it's worse than others (when I have more than window open on the current desktop it seems to have more problems, I think).

OK, if VWMHideTaskOnSwitch is on, previous window does not gain focus. If it is off, it works fine and I haven't switched desktops during this process. Also tried with 24.6 indie and there were no focussing probs, even with VWMHideTaskOnSwitch on, so it seems to be some compatibility with 24.7

Also, off topic (so please no one get pissed), has anyone found any sort of solution to the WinXP Luna skin system vs VWM problem? you know, the one where some maximised windows just stay sticky some of the time... annoying as hell. What I don't understand is how the VWM's like the nView thing and the powertoys one (both completely crap and utterly useless) as well as the one in Aston shell doesn't do this. Are they doing things in quite a different manner?

So what theme are you using now tnl? I could never find a good balance between eye candy and functionality. (most cases, I mod the themes' internal workings quite a bit until only the pretty skin is left from the original, which is why I normally go for eye candy). However, one big problem I found with downloading themes is that most theme makers include a full screenie in their preview pic instead of something that shows off the GUI, so when browsing for themes, I have to spend hours downloading huge pics of what is essentially mostly (or in some cases "only") a background wallpaper before I can judge if the theme is something I would want. I find this rather frustrating and I can hardly ever find a good theme without spending hours coz of the above as well as the fact that the highest rated/most downloaded themes hardly ever suit my tastes. Any suggestions?

eXpiation, the only fix for the VWM/windows theme bug right now is actually just a work around. turn off the windows theming service. or just use the classic theme (I believe that works too).

eXpiation: oh, I still use xij (my laziness/toleration for pain).

Naturally I have an updated version but it is very messy and buggier (using updated modules)...

Unfortunately I do not use ICQ. I'm using ls .24.7b4 on win2k and I can't get the focus to screw up, with or without HideTaskOnSwitch. Can anyone give me some sequence of actions that will always make the focus go someplace weird, or is it really inconsistent?

eXpiation: Aston's AltDesk looks like it uses something equivalent to HideTaskOnSwitch, and I would guess that nView uses the real "desktop" support in windows 2k/xp if it doesn't also just hide windows.

HideTask *should* help, but I can see why it doesn't with rvwm at least, and I'll try to fix that. (but I can't test it...)

Never mind, I've found something that'll do it: open a window, switch to a different desktop, open 3 windows, switch back to the first to set focus there, then switch to the second desktop and close two of the three windows. Focus goes to the lone window on the first desktop instead of the remaining window on the current desktop.

So now I have something to look for. :)

here's another issue I had today (I made sure to write it down so I wouldn't forget it!):
- in pcAnywhere, I clicked on the new session button, and focus was immediately given to Opera (which also came to the front). I had to click back to pcAnywhere, which still had the new session setup window up. That's usually the kind of stuff that happens.
another one that sometimes happens - If I'm creating or modifying a Win2K AD account, and I click OK to finish creating it, then (if I have another window open on the same desktop) focus will be given to the other window.

deuce: oh, I think the same sort of thing happens after I extract from .zip files using winzip in explorer the file manager. winzip does its work while minimized; when it's done extracting, focus doesn't return to explorer but some other window.

this happens with most things though, if not everything. I've been typing along in an opera window, and baam, focus is given to something else. it's getting a little annoying. but the strange thing is, it doesn't happen all the time. and some times are worse than others.

ok, I need some people to test this... Note that I have to email these out until I get some server issues resolved.

deuce: I can only guess at what the problem might be, but I do have a guess. I need you to test my guess tho, since I don't have this problem :)

eXpiation, or someone with XP: I need someone to test a fix to make HideTaskOnSwitch happy with XP Styles.

deuce, yes I do run Windows with Luna off, but everything's a lot uglier. Also, you're talking about things stealing focus and I had lots of problems with that as well in Win9x (what OS you using?) and I used to get SO dang annoyed, but after switching to XP and setting "Don't allow apps to steal focus" (or somthing like that) made my life a lot better (now the tasks just flash). But my problem is not stealing focus but the incorrect giving of focus (eg. if I launch something in 2xExplorer, the focus sometimes still stays with 2xExplorer; or if I close the thing launched with 2xExplorer, nothing then is focussed, ie. the focus doesn't switch back to the previous app.

It seems to be a prob with HideTaskOnSwitch and 24.7, rabid, but you don't seem to experiencee the prob so it might be theme related or something... will do testing. Also, I am unsure to which problem you were referring in "I need someone to test a fix to make HideTaskOnSwitch happy with XP Styles". Is it the focussing thing or the annoying sticky windows thing? Because I run with XP styles off but I still get focussing prob. Willing to test tho, so just tell me what you want done and through which medium to communicate :)

The sticky window thing is what I wanted tested on XP specifically, the focus problem sounds like it's not as descriminating. I'm finding a slightly more serious issue now though, with HideTask somehow not keeping track of which windows are supposed to be on which desktop. I'll probably email you something to test once I figure out what's going on with that.

Change of plans - my attempt to make HideTask avoid shifting windows with XP Styles *really* broke it. I won't need that particular part tested now because it's not going to be done until I can rewrite quite a bit of stuff.

and now I have to undo that in the code... :P

eXpiation, what do you mean by "Don't allow apps to steal focus"? I've never seen a command like that in rvwm's docs (but i could have easily missed it). also, I'm running XPSP1, with the themes service disabled.
rabidcow, if you need a tester, just shoot me an e-mail (my address is in my profile).

deuce, I didn't mean anything in rvwm, but in the OS itself. Check the settings (folder opts etc.), or I think it may be in TweakUI... grab the XP powertoys