immediate focus (was: openbox 3 comments/questions)

[Michael Leuchtenburg]

Spake John Russell:
> 
> > I figured out the <dialog>no</dialog> option, but it still only cycles
> > through window outlines and requires me to let go first.
> > It's the non-immediateness that annoys me, the icon/dialog can stay if
> > it goes away quickly. I much prefer alt-tab / ctrl-right immediately
> > changing focus to & raising the next window.
> 
> Funny, I specifically asked for that NOT to happen in an email a few
> weeks ago right before the introduction of the outline thingy.  The
> reason being, if I have 5 or six windows open, with, say, emacs focused.
> I'm rifling through 5 terminal windows with alt-tab to find the one
> terminal that I want, I dont' want the stacking order to get disrupted
> while I search as the chances are good that I want to go right back to
> emacs when I'm done looking.  With the immediate focus changes, all
> those terminals that I passed over while searching, are now on top of
> emacs in the stacking order.  
> 
> I find letting go a great way to tell the WM, "Ok, I found the one I
> want, now reset the stacking order."  

Fortunately, ob3 has this thing called a "config file" which lets
different users have it act differently. :)

Also, that mode of functioning makes the directional focus nigh useless.
Say I have 9 terms open on a desktop, and I have the upper left one
selected and I want to get to the lower right one. If I try to select it
the way I am used to using directional focus in other window managers
(sawfish, fvwm, kahakai, ob2, fluxbox), I would hit
W-right,right,down,down. That is, I would hit those directions without
releasing Super. In ob3, this would select the central window.

This is even more of a problem when using multiple desktops, where I
like being able to hop onto a desktop and immediately tell it to focus
some other window. In ob3, I need to release Super, because otherwise
I'm focusing back on my original desktop.

This feature makes ob3 totally unusable to me, due to my non-standard
mode of use. If it were possible to configure it, then ob3 would be a
window manager I could actually consider for more than passing use.
Those of us who have escaped the tyranny of alt-tab would appreciate
it. :) I'm sure there are those who use cycling who prefer immediate
focusing as well.

-- michael