Bug 81743 - Useraction menu closes when focus passes to another window
Summary: Useraction menu closes when focus passes to another window
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: kwin
Classification: Plasma
Component: core (show other bugs)
Version: 4.8.0
Platform: Debian testing Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: 4.9
Assignee: KWin default assignee
URL:
Keywords: investigated
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2004-05-17 15:39 UTC by Alexander Ewering
Modified: 2012-04-17 19:28 UTC (History)
0 users

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In: 4.9
Sentry Crash Report:


Attachments

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.
Description Alexander Ewering 2004-05-17 15:39:45 UTC
Version:            (using KDE KDE 3.2.2)
Installed from:    Debian testing/unstable Packages
OS:                Linux

Hello,

context menus (Like right-click on the titlebar of a window) have a serious usability problem. They immediately disappear once the mouse cursor leaves the menu area, be it only by a single pixel.

This leads to situations where I sometimes re-open the same context menu 4 times because I like to work fast and my 'mouse navigation' is not exact enough to exactly stay inside the menu borders while moving the mouse to the desired option.

I know this bug will be deleted because nowadays it's "Hip" to have inefficient interfaces and rather talk about shadows and transparency, but I'd still like to share :-)

The menu should have a 0.5 second (or configurable) timeout before it disappears, and/or a tolerance border.
Comment 1 Alexander Ewering 2004-05-17 15:42:45 UTC
I just found out this problem only occurs if there is a window behind the context menu, and focus is passed to the other window.
Comment 2 Lubos Lunak 2004-05-17 16:06:33 UTC
Please provide more details, like focus policy used.
Comment 3 Alexander Ewering 2004-05-17 16:16:00 UTC
Focus policy is "focus follows mouse", Auto-raise is OFF.
In my opinion, another window getting focus behind a context menu should not destroy the context menu.
Comment 4 Thomas Zander 2004-09-20 13:19:33 UTC
I can confirm said behavior; but I don't think that the alternative is a good idea.  I've seen another environment keep the context menu up while I change focus; its not wanted in most cases. (The context menu should only be visible while the actual context has focus, right?)

I suggest to close this as a 'will not fix'.

As a slight 'tweak' the context menus should be positioned mostly within the parent window.  So when I right click on a titlebar the context menu could appear at least (say) 10 pixels from the edge of the window.
Comment 5 Lubos Lunak 2004-10-01 12:35:38 UTC
I agree with comment #4.
Comment 6 Lubos Lunak 2004-10-01 12:37:05 UTC
After a second thought ...
Comment 7 Maksim Orlovich 2004-10-01 15:56:53 UTC
There is actually a QStyle option (along with a hidden KStyle setting) that makes this possible [it makes the area where one can move the mouse to a submenu w/o closing it bigger], but the Qt implementation had some major flicker problems, so it's not on by default
Comment 8 munlinux 2007-02-21 22:25:40 UTC
Apparently, this _seems_ to be an issue with the "title bar context menu", but is _not_ an issue with an "application context menu" or "desktop context menu". 

I.e. right-clicking on the konsole window produces a context menu that doesn't tend to disappear if you move focus to another window, while right-clicking on the konsole's title bar brings up a context menu that tends to disappear, as described here.

This is all with "focus follows mouse".

Please compare this behaviour with the one reported in bug 142040.
Comment 9 Frederico Valente 2008-07-22 19:14:23 UTC
I'm using only the touch pad as a pointing device with the focus follows mouse policy.
This is an incredibly annoying behavior that shows up whenever I wish to move a window to another desktop. I usually have a maximized window per virtual desktop and small windows like konsole or messenger windows that I wish to move somewhere else trigger this behavior.
Furthermore, this is inconsistent with the fact that the application menus (such as the file menu) do not go away if I move the pointer to another application. In fact the focus is retained on that window.
I do not agree with comment #4, why should the menu bar context menu behavior be any different than the application menu? And the suggested tweak of moving the menu somewhere more inside the parent window (therefore away from the pointer) seems unproductive. Plus, sub-menus (such as the Advanced or To Desktop) might still be outside the parent window.
Comment 10 Martin Flöser 2012-03-11 07:14:01 UTC
Steps to reproduce:
1. set focus policy to Focus Follows Mouse
2. open user actions context menu (alt+f3 menu)
3. move mouse to another window

Actual Result:
User action menu closes and focus is passed to other window

Expected Result:
User action menu does not close.

The problem is that the context menu is bound to the active window. When a focus change occurs the menu is closed. Consequently the menu closes when the mouse moves to another window with focus follows mouse.

I only see one solution: ignore the focus change request with focus follows mouse if a useraction context menu is open. This is also not realy correct.

In summary I think it is not possible to get a real solution to this problem.

I change to bug as I consider this more to be a bug than a feature request.
Comment 11 Thomas Lübking 2012-04-16 16:18:34 UTC
(In reply to comment #10)

> I only see one solution: ignore the focus change request with focus follows
> mouse if a useraction context menu is open. This is also not realy correct.

Yes, is.
"Normal" QMenus grab the pointer and relase it on a (even external) click or when the focus gets passed to another window.
However the only reason why this one reacts to crossing related focus change is that kwin pre-handles the event (against the grab) because it's the very same event handler (blahblahblah)

long story short:
stopping short on the EnterEvent handling if the menu is up will make it act like any regular popup (as of QMenu)
Comment 12 Thomas Lübking 2012-04-17 19:28:32 UTC
Git commit 0a69665f8e3d1d9698e3c7b72a41980f3f9cf97e by Thomas Lübking.
Committed on 16/04/2012 at 18:16.
Pushed by luebking into branch 'master'.

export clientpopup mapping state and use it to skip mouse driven focus changes
FIXED-IN: 4.9
REVIEW: 104620

M  +1    -1    kwin/events.cpp
M  +6    -0    kwin/workspace.h

http://commits.kde.org/kde-workspace/0a69665f8e3d1d9698e3c7b72a41980f3f9cf97e