Re: [Usability] Bug: Applications appearing on other desktops than started

["Elijah Newren" <newren gmail com>]

On 8/20/06, Martin Ejdestig <marejde gmail com> wrote:
> > This gets especially annoying if the application issues some dialogs
> > before it actually starts (like galeon after-crash dialog, which I see
> > quite regularly by the way) and the application doesn't appear, so
> > I have to go through my desktops and look for the lost dialog to click
> > ok...
> >
> > This is a bug. The application should appear where it was executed, not
> > on some random place determined by the time it takes to actually start
> > it, the power of my CPU, my action afterwards and other side-effects.
>
> It most certainly is a bug.
>
> > I'm posting it here since it is largely a usability bugin hope that
> > somebody with a better understanding of Gnome will fill it and push it
> > at the appropriate places.
>
> There's already infrastructure there to accomplish exactly what you are
> asking for. If you find a GNOME app that misbehaves, file a bug against
> it at http://bugzilla.gnome.org .

It is almost as likely to be a bug in the application launcher as it
is in the application itself.  If the application is not launched with
startup-notification, the WM has no clue where the app was launched
from and only knows what the current workspace is when the application
finally maps its window.

The fix, for apps that aren't single-instance only:
 1) The app has to support startup-notification (any
non-single-instance apps using gtk+ automatically do)
 2) Make sure the app is launched with startup-notification
("StartupNotify=true" in the .desktop file)

The fix, for apps that are single-instance only:
 1) Use lots of nasty code and hacks to make sure the application
supports startup-notification (even if the app is built on gtk+) OR
use Vytas' new single-instance library
(http://live.gnome.org/SingleInstanceApps) to take care of the
single-instance handling of the app
 2) Make sure the app is launched with startup-notification
("StartupNotify=true" in the .desktop file)

Cheers,
Elijah