Do you use sloppy focus?

pogeymanz · 2010-08-06 13:35:05

If so, what is the advantage?

I tried to give it a chance and I can see a few instances where you might want a window to have focus and not be raised, but it seems mostly like a pain to me...

kokoko3k · 2010-08-06 13:41:25

I dont, but i strongly use "keep above" function.

kcirick · 2010-08-06 13:42:28

Yes.

Say you are writing a document based on information on another window, you would want to read while typing, but you don't really need to see what you're typing. If you don't use sloppy focus, then the focused window (i.e. the window your typing) is on top of all of the windows, covering what you're reading.

I have a small screen, so this works for me. Maybe you have a giant screen and it's never an issue for you :-P

I'm sure there are other advantages, but this one comes to my mind...

drcouzelis · 2010-08-06 14:06:52

kcirick wrote:

Say you are writing a document based on information on another window, you would want to read while typing, but you don't really need to see what you're typing. If you don't use sloppy focus, then the focused window (i.e. the window your typing) is on top of all of the windows, covering what you're reading.

I agree that that is a very useful feature, but it's not exclusive to sloppy focus. What you described is a feature that exists in, for example, the default Haiku configuration. Click on a window to focus it ("click to focus") but only a click on the title bar or border will raise the window. My current configuration of PekWM is also setup like this.

Sloppy focus is tricky for me. I always want my mouse out of the way when I'm using the keyboard in a window. Even so, I remember using it at a school computer and not having a problem with it.

pogeymanz · 2010-08-06 14:08:23

kcirick wrote:

Yes.
Say you are writing a document based on information on another window, you would want to read while typing, but you don't really need to see what you're typing. If you don't use sloppy focus, then the focused window (i.e. the window your typing) is on top of all of the windows, covering what you're reading.
I have a small screen, so this works for me. Maybe you have a giant screen and it's never an issue for you :-P
I'm sure there are other advantages, but this one comes to my mind...

Yes, that seems like the obvious scenario where sloppy focus is good.

With click-to-focus I can scroll in an unfocused window while typing in a different focused window, IIRC (I'm not at a Linux machine right now). With sloppy focus, I'd have to move the mouse, scroll, then move the mouse back.

I'll give it another chance. The last time I used it, I was using AWN, which apparently hated sloppy focus and all of it's menu's and doodads misbehaved.

kcirick · 2010-08-06 14:32:29

Hm... I never had problems with sloppy focus. I think it's just matter of getting used to.

But why are you wanting to try it again, if you're happy with what you're using now?

pogeymanz · 2010-08-06 14:35:15

kcirick wrote:

Hm... I never had problems with sloppy focus. I think it's just matter of getting used to.
But why are you wanting to try it again, if you're happy with what you're using now?

Because I'm never happy. :-p

Basically, until a computer can read my mind, my interaction with it will never satisfy me.

kmason · 2010-08-06 17:17:55

I don't like it when I mouse over a window and it focuses it, especially since the mouse I use (Razer Naga) has a very high sensitivity/DPI, and the slightest bit of a nudge will make it impossible to get my work done. This is also true with my laptop's touchpad, as when I am typing, sometimes my hand slips and moves the mouse, and if I have mouse over focus on, it screws everything up (I would love to have a way to disable the touchpad or even an external mouse if the keyboard is being used - anyone know of a way to do so?).

So, click to focus for me.

lucke · 2010-08-06 17:21:31

kmason wrote:

(I would love to have a way to disable the touchpad or even an external mouse if the keyboard is being used - anyone know of a way to do so?).

You can use syndaemon if you have synaptics touchpad.

kmason · 2010-08-06 17:25:13

lucke wrote:

kmason wrote:
(I would love to have a way to disable the touchpad or even an external mouse if the keyboard is being used - anyone know of a way to do so?).
You can use syndaemon if you have synaptics touchpad.

Thanks, I'll look into that.

lifeafter2am · 2010-08-06 17:29:15

kmason wrote:

I don't like it when I mouse over a window and it focuses it, especially since the mouse I use (Razer Naga) has a very high sensitivity/DPI, and the slightest bit of a nudge will make it impossible to get my work done. This is also true with my laptop's touchpad, as when I am typing, sometimes my hand slips and moves the mouse, and if I have mouse over focus on, it screws everything up (I would love to have a way to disable the touchpad or even an external mouse if the keyboard is being used - anyone know of a way to do so?).
So, click to focus for me.

Wuss! I have the same mouse; lean to control your hand better!

**I hope you get the HEAVY sarcasm in the above statement**

kmason · 2010-08-06 17:31:28

lifeafter2am wrote:

kmason wrote:
I don't like it when I mouse over a window and it focuses it, especially since the mouse I use (Razer Naga) has a very high sensitivity/DPI, and the slightest bit of a nudge will make it impossible to get my work done. This is also true with my laptop's touchpad, as when I am typing, sometimes my hand slips and moves the mouse, and if I have mouse over focus on, it screws everything up (I would love to have a way to disable the touchpad or even an external mouse if the keyboard is being used - anyone know of a way to do so?).
So, click to focus for me.
Wuss! I have the same mouse; lean to control your hand better!
**I hope you get the HEAVY sarcasm in the above statement**

Haha! Yeah, its even harder though when using it on my laptop while sitting on a couch.

Anyways, syndaemon did the trick, thanks for the tip.

toxygen · 2010-08-06 23:08:59

Since i first started using linux way back in mid 90s, i've used "focus strictly under mouse" with no-click through raise (thanks windowmaker!). i hate any other type now, especially in windows, having no focus follow mouse/focus under mouse is such a pain for me now

it makes things simpler for me, when reading something on the web, and having a terminal in the back where i can type commands as i go, or going from one window to another. i cant think of a reason to switch to another method.

mythus · 2010-08-07 00:52:57

For me it depends on what I am doing. For example, at first I hated the sloppy focus that is default in pekwm, but it quickly grew on me, and I found myself missing it. It was nice when doing what I do most, website admin and desktop publishing.

However I was trying an experiment in pekwm where I set up AWN as the pannel. Sloppy focus made it difficult there as I couldn't use the pop-out functions of AWN without focusing the window beneath!

Ogion · 2010-08-07 06:38:57

For those who "want their mouse out of the way", there is "unclutter" in community. It makes the mouse invisible after a configured amount of time.
I use a tiling wm, i had to test it and yes i have focus follows mouse too. Although these days on my netbook i barely have more than one window at a time visible, i use a tabbed layout normally.

Ogion

pogeymanz · 2010-08-07 15:22:59

mythus wrote:

For me it depends on what I am doing. For example, at first I hated the sloppy focus that is default in pekwm, but it quickly grew on me, and I found myself missing it. It was nice when doing what I do most, website admin and desktop publishing.
However I was trying an experiment in pekwm where I set up AWN as the pannel. Sloppy focus made it difficult there as I couldn't use the pop-out functions of AWN without focusing the window beneath!

Yeah, clearly the AWN folks are not using sloppy focus. I can only imagine there are a few apps that are the same way.

egan · 2010-08-08 02:37:28

Sloppy focus is a must for a floating window manager. Back in my Windows days, I used to use a powertool to enable what was called xmouse. I was pleased to find this was a common paradigm in UNIX window managers. Mac OS X has no such feature and is as such unusable for me. The main problem with click to focus is that it also raises the window... if it did not, or if the window manager has "always on top" then it would be tolerable. Now that I have a tiling window manager, it is pretty much a non issue: I don't use a mouse; if I did, the windows don't overlap anyway so there is no raising necessary and as such the click would seem thoroughly superfluous.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-08-06 13:35:05

Do you use sloppy focus?

#2 2010-08-06 13:41:25

Re: Do you use sloppy focus?

#3 2010-08-06 13:42:28

Re: Do you use sloppy focus?

#4 2010-08-06 14:06:52

Re: Do you use sloppy focus?

#5 2010-08-06 14:08:23

Re: Do you use sloppy focus?

#6 2010-08-06 14:32:29

Re: Do you use sloppy focus?

#7 2010-08-06 14:35:15

Re: Do you use sloppy focus?

#8 2010-08-06 17:17:55

Re: Do you use sloppy focus?

#9 2010-08-06 17:21:31

Re: Do you use sloppy focus?

#10 2010-08-06 17:25:13

Re: Do you use sloppy focus?

#11 2010-08-06 17:29:15

Re: Do you use sloppy focus?

#12 2010-08-06 17:31:28

Re: Do you use sloppy focus?

#13 2010-08-06 23:08:59

Re: Do you use sloppy focus?

#14 2010-08-07 00:52:57

Re: Do you use sloppy focus?

#15 2010-08-07 06:38:57

Re: Do you use sloppy focus?

#16 2010-08-07 15:22:59

Re: Do you use sloppy focus?

#17 2010-08-08 02:37:28

Re: Do you use sloppy focus?

Board footer