bug#61337: 29.0.60; Setting frame-title-format makes Emacs to steal focus

[Po Lu]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

>> From: Óscar Fuentes <ofv@wanadoo.es>
>> Cc: luangruo@yahoo.com,  61337@debbugs.gnu.org
>> Date: Thu, 09 Feb 2023 17:17:40 +0100
>> 
>> > You mean, you rely on the focus not to change while Emacs's desktop is
>> > not shown?  But if some idle timer causes Emacs to raise a frame, you
>> > will also see Emacs with focus when you switch desktops, right?
>> >
>> > I'm not sure I understand the basis for this expectation.  I'd
>> > certainly not even remember in which state I left the applications
>> > before switching away, and will look first when I switch back.
>> 
>> Sure, but on this case you will see that Konsole's window is covering
>> Emacs' (if Emacs' window is visible at all), so you assume that Konsole
>> has the focus. For avoiding that you must take care of looking at some
>> place that indicates which window has or has not focus (usually the
>> window's title bar) noticing that Konsole has no focus, and perform an
>> action to either give focus to Konsole or bring Emacs' window to the
>> front.
>
> Of course.  But this need to make sure the window which has input
> focus is the one you think it is, is something routine in a windowed
> environment, IME.
>
>> > because applications can request focus for any number of reasons.
>> >
>> > So I'm surprised that the fact that Emacs gets focus without your
>> > knowing is regarded as a problem at all.
>> 
>> Focus stealing is widely regarded as a very rude action.
>
> Happens to me all the time, and at least sometimes for good reasons:
> for example, if a program pops up an abort dialog, it is completely
> reasonable for it to steal focus.  Similarly any other event that
> requires an immediate attention from the user.
>
>> Certainly, just switching destktops is not one good reason for stealing
>> the focus.
>
> Once again, you assume that nothing happened except switching
> desktops, but that assumption doesn't have a very solid basis.
>
> But I guess we will need to agree to disagree here.

I think you are both arguing over a misunderstanding.

Oscar's problem is that KWin focuses Emacs when it really should not,
when Emacs has done nothing to ask for the focus, and is in fact
iconified in a different desktop.

And even worse, that focus is set in a way that cannot easily be
perceived by the user.