THE single most ANNOYING bug in Irida

Dammit, even as I tried to type this message, it occured.

The $#%^*# program keeps stealing the focus!

I've seen the previous threads on this and the discussion on whether this is
a Sun problem or not. So be it. It still makes using IDEA downright
dangerous in some cases. I'm almost forced to go into a "DOS mode" style of
working and singletask.

This is not developing with pleasure.

</vent>


0
31 comments

If you are on windows, get the tweak utils and set prevent applications
from stealing focus. Works most of them time (until you have 2 windows).

However, you are correct. An annoyance to customers should be
resolved. Fault does not matter, it is a bad user experience.

FYI, I think they have a plan to resolve the problems, but I have no
idea what it is or what the time line is.

Norris Shelton
Sun Certified Java Programmer




Michael Morett wrote:

>Dammit, even as I tried to type this message, it occured.
>
>The $#%^*# program keeps stealing the focus!
>
>I've seen the previous threads on this and the discussion on whether this is
>a Sun problem or not. So be it. It still makes using IDEA downright
>dangerous in some cases. I'm almost forced to go into a "DOS mode" style of
>working and singletask.
>
>This is not developing with pleasure.
>
></vent>
>
>

>

0

I have tweakUI but it doesn't seem to help at all. What do you mean by
"until you have 2 windows"? And I agree, it is downright dangerous. I
don't know how many times I've started typing an IM or email while doing
a build only to have IDEA steal the focus without me noticing and I
start typing into a source file.

Norris Shelton wrote:

If you are on windows, get the tweak utils and set prevent applications
from stealing focus. Works most of them time (until you have 2 windows).

However, you are correct. An annoyance to customers should be
resolved. Fault does not matter, it is a bad user experience.

FYI, I think they have a plan to resolve the problems, but I have no
idea what it is or what the time line is.

Norris Shelton
Sun Certified Java Programmer




Michael Morett wrote:

>> Dammit, even as I tried to type this message, it occured.
>>
>> The $#%^*# program keeps stealing the focus!
>>
>> I've seen the previous threads on this and the discussion on whether
>> this is
>> a Sun problem or not. So be it. It still makes using IDEA downright
>> dangerous in some cases. I'm almost forced to go into a "DOS mode"
>> style of
>> working and singletask.
>>
>> This is not developing with pleasure.
>>
>> </vent>
>>
>>
>>
>>

--
"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy,
education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary.
Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of
punishment and hope of reward after death."
[Albert Einstein, "Religion and Science", New York Times Magazine, 9
November 1930]

0

I agree that it's probably the most annoying and counter-productive
issue of IDEA :(

Unfortunately this issue has been discussed so much that anyone
who brings it up again gets their donuts confiscated. Even by
just saying that I'm risking my donuts.

I definitely wish they would take care of that problem (and I
praise TweakUI on Windows that definitely helps).

Vince.


0

Check your settings. I think the setting gets undone sometimes. Once
you can make it stick, it works pretty good.

Norris Shelton
Sun Certified Java Programmer




Brad wrote:

I have tweakUI but it doesn't seem to help at all. What do you mean by
"until you have 2 windows"? And I agree, it is downright dangerous. I
don't know how many times I've started typing an IM or email while
doing a build only to have IDEA steal the focus without me noticing
and I start typing into a source file.

>

Norris Shelton wrote:

>
>> If you are on windows, get the tweak utils and set prevent
>> applications from stealing focus. Works most of them time (until you
>> have 2 windows).
>>
>> However, you are correct. An annoyance to customers should be
>> resolved. Fault does not matter, it is a bad user experience.
>>
>> FYI, I think they have a plan to resolve the problems, but I have no
>> idea what it is or what the time line is.
>>
>> Norris Shelton
>> Sun Certified Java Programmer
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Michael Morett wrote:
>>
>>> Dammit, even as I tried to type this message, it occured.
>>>
>>> The $#%^*# program keeps stealing the focus!
>>>
>>> I've seen the previous threads on this and the discussion on whether
>>> this is
>>> a Sun problem or not. So be it. It still makes using IDEA downright
>>> dangerous in some cases. I'm almost forced to go into a "DOS mode"
>>> style of
>>> working and singletask.
>>>
>>> This is not developing with pleasure.
>>>
>>> </vent>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>

0

Maybe for you... I find it annoying. But, there are dozens of much more annoying bugs for me. Top of my list is the Win2K file watcher causing IDEA to quit to the desktop (http://www.intellij.net/tracker/idea/viewSCR?publicId=37382). Or, how about breakpoints taking forever to display (http://www.intellij.net/tracker/idea/viewSCR?publicId=39569). I could go on.

0

I think y'all should just get Macs :)

R

In article <cpkr6b$t2d$1@is.intellij.net>,
"Michael Morett" <michaelmorett@yahoo.com> wrote:

Dammit, even as I tried to type this message, it occured.

The $#%^*# program keeps stealing the focus!

I've seen the previous threads on this and the discussion on whether this is
a Sun problem or not. So be it. It still makes using IDEA downright
dangerous in some cases. I'm almost forced to go into a "DOS mode" style of
working and singletask.

This is not developing with pleasure.

</vent>

0

Oooh, nice flame war starter:)

Robert S. Sfeir wrote:

I think y'all should just get Macs :)

R

In article <cpkr6b$t2d$1@is.intellij.net>,
"Michael Morett" <michaelmorett@yahoo.com> wrote:

>>Dammit, even as I tried to type this message, it occured.
>>
>>The $#%^*# program keeps stealing the focus!
>>
>>I've seen the previous threads on this and the discussion on whether this is
>>a Sun problem or not. So be it. It still makes using IDEA downright
>>dangerous in some cases. I'm almost forced to go into a "DOS mode" style of
>>working and singletask.
>>
>>This is not developing with pleasure.
>>
>></vent>

--
"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy,
education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary.
Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of
punishment and hope of reward after death."
[Albert Einstein, "Religion and Science", New York Times Magazine, 9
November 1930]

0

Or maybe run Linux?

0

Or maybe run Linux?


That doesn't help, at least not for me (Metacity/GNOME 2.8)...

0

Actually it's even WORSE on linux. Never mind grabbing the focus all the time, on linux IDEA runs to lose focus when you actually need it. It works like this:

Your Wish: You want to type on another application
IDEA: steal the focus

Your Wish: You want to type in IDEA
IDEA: loses focus

It's a constant battle agains the computer. I've lost the count of how many times the last drop of patience went away and I screamed out loud. I'm afraid my coworkers will call me insane at anytime...

0

Macs would certainly fix the focus issues, but with irida, you'd get screwed by a whole host of other little delights:

- cvs rollback and diff against latest version don't work
- editing xml files will more often than non pop up some sort of exception
- any kind of fiddling about in j2ee modules is heavily discouraged
- cvs settings are often forgotten, and if you're foolish enough to check the 'don't prompt me again' type checkbox in the commit dialog and hit ok by accident, the only way out is to track down the appropriate setting in the ipr file.
- Editing compiler properties on a clean install blows up spectacularly

So y'know, while I feel some sympathy for your silly little focus issues, I have my own pains and sorrows to worry about.

0

Actually, most of those issues are available in the Windoze variety too.

Hani Suleiman wrote:

Macs would certainly fix the focus issues, but with irida, you'd get screwed by a whole host of other little delights:

- cvs rollback and diff against latest version don't work
- editing xml files will more often than non pop up some sort of exception
- any kind of fiddling about in j2ee modules is heavily discouraged
- cvs settings are often forgotten, and if you're foolish enough to check the 'don't prompt me again' type checkbox in the commit dialog and hit ok by accident, the only way out is to track down the appropriate setting in the ipr file.
- Editing compiler properties on a clean install blows up spectacularly

So y'know, while I feel some sympathy for your silly little focus issues, I have my own pains and sorrows to worry about.


--
"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy,
education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary.
Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of
punishment and hope of reward after death."
[Albert Einstein, "Religion and Science", New York Times Magazine, 9
November 1930]

0

In article <3187484.1103036513587.JavaMail.itn@is.intellij.net>,
Hani Suleiman <hani@formicary.net> wrote:

Macs would certainly fix the focus issues,


Although now that I think about it, if they got macs they would complain
about how annoying the bouncing icon is in the dock is :D

but with irida, you'd get screwed
by a whole host of other little delights:

- cvs rollback and diff against latest version don't work
- editing xml files will more often than non pop up some sort of exception
- any kind of fiddling about in j2ee modules is heavily discouraged
- cvs settings are often forgotten, and if you're foolish enough to check the
'don't prompt me again' type checkbox in the commit dialog and hit ok by
accident, the only way out is to track down the appropriate setting in the
ipr file.
- Editing compiler properties on a clean install blows up spectacularly

So y'know, while I feel some sympathy for your silly little focus issues, I
have my own pains and sorrows to worry about.

0

Both KDE and XFCE have settings to supress some of the focus stealing that IDEA does. Works well for me. I have not had a chance to mess with Gnome's settings so I could not tell you.

0

This issue will be fixed in Irida for sure.

Best regards,

Eugene Belyaev
President, CTO
JetBrains, Inc
http://www.jetbrains.com

"Develop with pleasure!"

Dammit, even as I tried to type this message, it occured.

The $#%^*# program keeps stealing the focus!

I've seen the previous threads on this and the discussion on whether
this is a Sun problem or not. So be it. It still makes using IDEA
downright dangerous in some cases. I'm almost forced to go into a
"DOS mode" style of working and singletask.

This is not developing with pleasure.

</vent>



0

Lost focus / stolen focus is terrible on Linux - and there's no tweak UI here..

0

Fantastic.

Norris Shelton
Sun Certified Java Programmer




Eugene Belyaev wrote:

This issue will be fixed in Irida for sure.

>

Best regards,

>

Eugene Belyaev
President, CTO
JetBrains, Inc
http://www.jetbrains.com

>

"Develop with pleasure!"

>
>> Dammit, even as I tried to type this message, it occured.
>>
>> The $#%^*# program keeps stealing the focus!
>>
>> I've seen the previous threads on this and the discussion on whether
>> this is a Sun problem or not. So be it. It still makes using IDEA
>> downright dangerous in some cases. I'm almost forced to go into a
>> "DOS mode" style of working and singletask.
>>
>> This is not developing with pleasure.
>>
>> </vent>
>>
>
>

0

You can always switch to M$ Windows. :-P

Norris Shelton
Sun Certified Java Programmer




Nick Pratt wrote:

>Lost focus / stolen focus is terrible on Linux - and there's no tweak UI here..

>

0

Awesome!

Eugene Belyaev wrote:

This issue will be fixed in Irida for sure.

Best regards,

Eugene Belyaev
President, CTO
JetBrains, Inc
http://www.jetbrains.com

"Develop with pleasure!"

>> Dammit, even as I tried to type this message, it occured.
>>
>> The $#%^*# program keeps stealing the focus!
>>
>> I've seen the previous threads on this and the discussion on whether
>> this is a Sun problem or not. So be it. It still makes using IDEA
>> downright dangerous in some cases. I'm almost forced to go into a
>> "DOS mode" style of working and singletask.
>>
>> This is not developing with pleasure.
>>
>> </vent>
>>



--
"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy,
education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary.
Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of
punishment and hope of reward after death."
[Albert Einstein, "Religion and Science", New York Times Magazine, 9
November 1930]

0

Hang on one second while I go tell my boss, and then his boss to switch our Unix environment to Windows...

But then again, why would we - most of our boxes here dont get rebooted except for hardware changes.

0

Michael,

Does the solution, mentioned in
http://www.intellij.net/tracker/idea/viewSCR?publicId=8181 help?

0

Well,

That tracker entry describes the same problem, but I didn't see a solution
in there other than registry tweaks which some have said still didn't solve
the problem.

I could be wrong but I dont remember this being such a problem before with
IDEA. I've been using it since Aurora and I just dont remember this being
an issue.

If we break it down to the bare essentials, here's where I think we are on
this:

1. it affects a whole lot of people
2. it is very annoying affecting usability
3. it can be dangerous if we are not careful

It could be Sun's fault.
It could be Microsoft's fault (though I've seen some claims that this
happens on Linux as well, so there goes that theory).

But at the end of the day, when all the fingers have been pointed and blame
was ceremoniously passed around, one thing is undeniable:

It happens when we use IDEA. And it happens very often. And,

1. it affects a whole lot of people
2. it is very annoying affecting usability
3. it can be dangerous if we are not careful


I cant even do something as simple as fire up IDEA, switch to another window
to get some work done there (write an email?) while it does the sync thing
and focus on that email. IDEA will constantly keep pulling me back to its
window.

It would be sad to see people abandon IDEA for another IDE that doesn't have
this problem. IDEA has so much to offer.



"Mike Aizatsky (JetBrains)" <Mike.Aizatsky@jetbrains.com> wrote in message
news:cpq092$7b8$1@is.intellij.net...

Michael,

>

Does the solution, mentioned in
http://www.intellij.net/tracker/idea/viewSCR?publicId=8181 help?



0

little bit offtopic: the eap-website adapted IDEA's behaviour and always steals my focus when page was loaded - i hate it, did fill a request in the appropriate forum for this, but seems i'm the only one interested ;/

0

You are right, it IS caused by IDEA. For instance, IDEA fires up a
couple of progress dialogs. If it would fire up only one and keeps
it open until (a) all work is done and/or (b) the user switches back to
IDEA, then it would solve a lot of problems.

BTW, I don't know of any other Java application, that has so much
focus-stealing problems as IDEA.

Tom

0

In article <cprk58$n7a$1@is.intellij.net>,
"Thomas Singer (MoTJ)" <nomail@nodomain.com> wrote:

You are right, it IS caused by IDEA. For instance, IDEA fires up a
couple of progress dialogs. If it would fire up only one and keeps
it open until (a) all work is done and/or (b) the user switches back to
IDEA, then it would solve a lot of problems.


Thomas, IIRC this was the solution discussed the first time. JetBrains
can correct me, but it included having one 'progress' window with many
progress bars for each process and it would close when everything was
done, if a new process started it would be pushed into the existing
progress window.


BTW, I don't know of any other Java application, that has so much
focus-stealing problems as IDEA.


MagicDraw UML, but then they kinda suck interface wise, whereas IntelliJ
IDEA is thought of a one of the better designed apps.

But I don't have this major issue on the Mac except for bouncing icon in
doc, so I just ignore it.

R

0

THANK GOD!!! .. and JetBrains.

Best news I've had all day .... :)

0

Thomas Singer (MoTJ) wrote:

You are right, it IS caused by IDEA. For instance, IDEA fires up a
couple of progress dialogs. If it would fire up only one and keeps
it open until (a) all work is done and/or (b) the user switches back to
IDEA, then it would solve a lot of problems.


Wasn't there a thread/suggestion about this ages ago about moving to
something like Firefox's download manager/progress window - where new
entries/jobs slide in at the top and drop off the bottom when closed by
the user or something.

The progress window could be floating by default, but could also be
docked...?

0

Yes, there was such an discussion. But as I understand, one most important
feature of a modal progress dialog is blocking user input into the parent
frame/dialog to avoid conflicts. Blocking the frame/dialog without a modal
dialog is MUCH harder.

I just wanted to say, that ONE progress dialog instead of MULTIPLE one after
another could reduce the annoyance level.

Tom

0

+
locking the frame/dialog without a modal dialog is MUCH harder.
+

One can use the glasspane for this. I haven't done it myself, but I think it would involve adding key and mouse listeners to a component on the glasspane that covers the whole frame / dialog, and consuming all the incoming input events.

--

0

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