Firefox startup behaviour

[Jonathan Berry]

On 2/10/06, Michael Favia <michael.favia at insitesinc.com> wrote:
> Jonathan Berry wrote:
> > On 2/10/06, William John Murray <W.J.Murray at rl.ac.uk> wrote:
> >>  There is a minor, but annoying, behaviour with the firefox launching
> >> behaviour in FC5T2. If I click on a link, e.g. in an email, firefox
> >> is launched. Good. If I click on a second link it is not launched again,
> >> but instead a new tab is opened. Fine.
> >>    However, if the original window is on a different workspace, then I
> >> get no feedback that anything has happened.
> >>
> >>   This has obviously been worked on:  If there are two existing firefox
> >> sessions the one in the current workspace is used. IF that is iconised
> >> it is opened.
> >>   But can we go one step further, and open a new window if the existing
> >> one is off workspace?
> >
> > This should be controlled by Firefox.  There is a setting in Firefox
> > that controls where new links are opened.
> > Edit->Preferences->Tabs->"Open links from other applications in:"  I
> > would not expect that Firefox can know what workspace it is on and if
> > that is not the current workspace.
> >
> Agreed but it does beg the question as to how you might hint to the
> window manager that there is something that needs attention in another
> workspace. I often run into this issue because i utilize all 4 workspace
> configured on this desktop.
>
> A configurable setting at the window manager level with good defaults
> would be appreciated. In my opinion the default behavior should notify
> you in the notification area and offer you the ability to switch to the
> relevant workspace by clicking on it. That way we don't force focus away
> from current tasks (because these events aren't alway user generated)
> and we still give them all the information and ability to make the
> decision. An alternative would be to flash the workspace with the needed
> attention (much like the flashing application bar activity).

There is already the flashing application bar stuff.  Why couldn't
that, say, flash the window as shown in the pager (I think that is the
term; the thing that shows the desktops) in that case since it is not
in the current task bar list?  Of course, this would not work if it
was on another workspace and minimized.  Unless the activity
unminimized it.  Perhaps, if the application were minimized, the whole
desktop pane in the pager could flash.  Something in the notification
area might be good, too, in case someone doesn't have a pager or wants
something more noticable.  Doesn't sound too hard, but should probably
be done upstream at Gnome...  Also, you would need someway to trigger
the flashing.  I'm not sure how that is done.

> I don't think that the application should be raised on the current
> workspace or that workspaces should ever be automatically switched.
> Because of the disruptive nature of such events. -mf

Absolutely agree with that one.  That would also certainly go against
Gnome's work on focus stealing prevention (hoping not to ignite
another debate over that subject...).

Jonathan