Bug 438056

Summary:	Open files by direct click should not happen on focus
Product:	[Applications] konsole	Reporter:	Edwin Peer <espeer>
Component:	general	Assignee:	Konsole Developer <konsole-devel>
Status:	REPORTED ---
Severity:	normal	CC:	a.samirh78, espeer, nate
Priority:	NOR	Keywords:	usability
Version First Reported In:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	unspecified
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Edwin Peer 2021-06-03 20:13:49 UTC

When "open files/links by direct click" is enabled, the click required to focus the window will also open an editor if the focus coordinates happen to coincide with a displayed link. This presents a usability issue, since the click used to focus the window is usually a coarse grained action. It's common to simply click anywhere to raise focus and if that happens to be a link then an editor is inadvertently opened. This is especially problematic if the whole terminal is filled by a recent 'ls' in a directory, in which case, clicking almost anywhere but the title bar results in an editor being spawned. This is jarring to workflow and usually happens when it is least expected.

This is a very neat feature, but the annoyance of unwanted editors popping up when all that is desired is focus the window makes the feature almost unusable. Clicking on files in konsole should be a more deliberate action and thus should only happen when the window already has focus.

Alternatively, if this change is not universally desirable, please add an option to customize this behavior so that users can choose to have the click that focuses the terminal ignored for the purposes of this feature.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Enable "Open files/links by direct click" in "Settings -> Mouse -> Miscellaneous".
2. Display some files in a terminal and select a different focus window.
3. Click to focus the konsole on a rendered file name.

OBSERVED RESULT
An editor is opened.

EXPECTED RESULT
An editor should not be opened if the window did not already have focus.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Linux/KDE Plasma: ArchLinux, kernel 5.12.8-arch1-1
KDE Plasma Version: 5.21.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.82.0
Qt Version: 5.15.2

Comment 1 Ahmad Samir 2021-06-03 21:05:45 UTC

There is a setting in KWin, systemsettings -> windows management -> window behaviour -> inactive inner window actions -> left click, try changing it to "activate and raise".

Does that work for your use case?

Note that this how apps work globally, I don't think we should special case Konsole here.

Comment 2 Edwin Peer 2021-06-03 22:44:33 UTC

I was not aware of this option, thanks. It still doesn't play nicely with focus follows mouse though, which I also use.

Maybe another mode where focus follows mouse is somehow weaker for mouse clicks, which would otherwise implicitly focus the window?

Comment 3 Edwin Peer 2021-06-04 00:04:45 UTC

Actually, one does need to special case konsole. Globally not passing focus clicks makes most other apps feel very unnatural - effectively requiring two clicks to do anything (one to focus, the 2nd to do what you intended). 

Terminals are a little different. One usually is not clicking on UI elements to get things done in a terminal - it is inherently more keyboard based (especially if one disables all menus on terminals, as I do). The links feature is an interesting foray into something different. Now all of a sudden a terminal has mouse-able UI elements and that behaves weirdly with how one might normally expect focus to work on a terminal.

Are the inactive window actions something that can be applied using Window Rules?