Can KWin prevent windows from raising themselves from their v.desktop to the current v.desktop?

[Duncan]

rhkramer posted on Fri, 16 Dec 2022 07:56:11 -0500 as excerpted:

>  As I'm going through my emails,
> I click on links that I want to read later (usually after getting
> through some portion of my emails).
> 
> With my old versions of firefox (still in use) I am not distracted from
> my email reading.
> 
> On my most recent installation of (Debian Jesse / Firefox (yes, I
> know)), when I click on a link in an email it immediately switches me to
> the firefox desktop and "raises" that window.

Chuckled at the sig.

FWIW, while I can agree the new behavior could be annoying, not to brag 
(well... sort of... but see the compromises below) I don't have the 
particular problem you describe due to my layout, two 4K 75-inch TVs side-
by-side for 7680x2160 overall resolution, 130x36 inch (3.3x0.9m).

The left-hand monitor often runs firefox PnP mode fullscreen youtube, with 
the right hand monitor being divided into four 1860x1080 working panes 
(sized so there's a narrow 120-px wide strip left on the far right for my 
conky system monitors) in 2x2 layout.  I use kwin window rules to default 
my usual windows to the working pane size.

So matching to your scenario the left monitor would still be a full-
monitor firefox PnP video window, with the regular ff window in one pane 
on the right, and email in another pane.  That would leave two other panes 
open for say an email reply and a konsole window.

Clicking email links would open new tabs in the existing ff main window, 
obscuring the youtube page tab, but the video would still be playing 
unobstructed full-screen on the other monitor and with the tree-style-tab 
extension side-bar open in the firefox main-window, switching tabs there 
is a non-issue.

All windows still visible, and with appropriate kwin focus policy and 
focus-stealing-prevention, the email window retains focus if that's what 
the mouse is over.  And even if the ff window gets focus, scrolling 
scrolls the window its over not the window with focus, so would scroll the 
mail window.  And clicking another link would of course raise the email 
window and pass the click, opening the link in firefox as expected even if 
the email window didn't have focus when the link was clicked.

Such a big workspace really changes the way you work.  With the exception 
of full-screen videos, you don't /want/ most things maximized or full-
screened, for instance, because it's just /too/ big.  1/4 screen (half 
vert, half horiz) for a 2x2 layout on one monitor, is /much/ more 
practical, of course leaving the other panes of the 2x2 open for other 
things without obscuring anything.

Tho I do still use multiple desktops, but they tend to be for really 
different tasks, like one for games, one for online (rss feeds, email, 
etc), and one for upgrades (a bunch of konsole windows, keeping in mind I 
run gentoo and actually build the upgrades from sources, plus run live-git 
for some things like most of kde, tracking various git logs as part of my 
upgrade process, so a bunch of konsole windows and a ff window to read 
logs while upgrading while troubleshooting and investigating/filing bugs 
makes sense), not for different bits of the same task (clicking links in 
an email client to open them in the browser for your example, or the 
different konsole windows and browser window for the upgrade task 
example).

But while it's a dream in many aspects, there have been compromises.  The 
cpu/mobo are a decade old now, a six-thread AMD fx6100 from 2011, the 
graphics a half-decade-old AMD Radeon rx460 (polaris 11 baffin), and while 
I did upgrade to ssds and it has a then sizable now middling 16 gig RAM, 
it really struggles to play full 4K 3840x2160 at 60Hz web videos (50Hz is 
better, only an occasional frame-freeze with nothing else going, 25 or 30 
Hz much better with middle-duty additional tasks, or downgrade to full HD 
1920x1080 if I'm doing something heavy like a gentoo upgrade build).  And 
the TVs are low-end, some of the first 75" 4Ks to sell under $1000 each 
and now several years old, so are dimming and showing edge-lit-LED 
artifact banding, not to mention the "percussive maintenance" I have to do 
on the one to get it to turn on if I leave it off long enough to cool 
down.

But low-Q or not, old computer backing up the fancy if low-q display or 
not, how many have such a display "wall" at all?  That's /something/.  And 
it /does/ change the way you work.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman