Netbeans 6.1 focus-switch glitch

[zerg]

This is slightly annoying. Switching tasks away from Netbeans and back
seems to focus the menu bar most of the time, so if you, say, type some
code, then alt-tab to the browser displaying some javadoc, then alt-tab
back and type, it pulls down menus and generally goes nuts.

As near as I can tell, most Windows apps focus the menu bar if alt is
pressed, but ignore alt if the app is just gaining focus and alt is
depressed at the time; that is, they require an alt-down event to focus
the menu bar, and alt-down events are only generated if alt goes from
raised to depressed while the app has focus. If you hit alt-tab in a
browser, the browser sees the only alt-down event generated.

Unfortunately, Netbeans appears to generate alt-down events if it gains
focus while alt is being held down. So both the browser AND Netbeans see
alt-down events if Netbeans is the destination app.

Is there any way to tweak/change/reconfigure this behavior? Having to
hit alt-tab and then tap alt again to get the cursor back whenever I go
to consult the javadoc for something is becoming annoying. Notepad
doesn't do this.

 

[Lew]

This is slightly annoying. Switching tasks away from Netbeans and back
seems to focus the menu bar most of the time, so if you, say, type some
code, then alt-tab to the browser displaying some javadoc, then alt-tab
back and type, it pulls down menus and generally goes nuts.

As near as I can tell, most Windows apps focus the menu bar if alt is
pressed, but ignore alt if the app is just gaining focus and alt is
depressed at the time; that is, they require an alt-down event to focus
the menu bar, and alt-down events are only generated if alt goes from
raised to depressed while the app has focus. If you hit alt-tab in a
browser, the browser sees the only alt-down event generated.

Unfortunately, Netbeans appears to generate alt-down events if it gains
focus while alt is being held down. So both the browser AND Netbeans see
alt-down events if Netbeans is the destination app.

I tried to duplicate this behavior using NetBeans under windows and I
cannot. I put focus in an editor window (a .java source file, as it
happens), alt-tabbed to a different window (Firefox browser), then alt-
tabbed back to NB. Focus remained in the editor window and did not go
to the menu bar.

I conclude that this is not a NetBeans issue.

 

[Daniele Futtorovic]

I tried to duplicate this behavior using NetBeans under windows and I
cannot. I put focus in an editor window (a .java source file, as it
happens), alt-tabbed to a different window (Firefox browser), then alt-
tabbed back to NB. Focus remained in the editor window and did not go
to the menu bar.

Double that.

Focus goes to the menu bar on ALT KEY_RELEASED, or maybe KEY_TYPED, but
not on KEY_PRESSED.

 

[zerg]

Focus goes to the menu bar on ALT KEY_RELEASED, or maybe KEY_TYPED, but
not on KEY_PRESSED.

On further investigation, it looks like the focus is going to the menu
bar when initially switching away from Netbeans. Perhaps normal app
behavior is to toggle focus back from menubar if tab is hit while alt
still depressed. But it's not always doing so with Netbeans.

It seems to be intermittent. In fact, it looks like if you
push alt
push tab
release tab
release alt
when switching away, Netbeans behaves normally, but if you
push alt
push tab
release alt
release tab
Netbeans transfers focus to the menu bar on alt release, then Windows
switches task on tab release. (In the first case, Windows switches task
on tab release, and when alt release occurs Netbeans doesn't see it as
it no longer has keyboard focus at all.)

I can confirm that Thunderbird and other Windows apps don't focus the
menu bar if tab is pushed after alt is pushed and before alt is
released, only if alt is released without any tab push having occurred
since alt was last pushed down.

I, and probably many users, push alt, push tab, and then release both
nearly simultaneously, so about 50% of the time Netbeans editor panes
will lose input focus.

 

[Lew]

if you
push alt
push tab
release alt
release tab
Netbeans transfers focus to the menu bar on alt release, then Windows
switches task on tab release. (In the first case, Windows switches task
on tab release, and when alt release occurs Netbeans doesn't see it as
it no longer has keyboard focus at all.)

I can confirm that Thunderbird and other Windows apps don't focus the
menu bar if tab is pushed after alt is pushed and before alt is
released, only if alt is released without any tab push having occurred
since alt was last pushed down.

I, and probably many users, push alt, push tab, and then release both
nearly simultaneously, so about 50% of the time Netbeans editor panes
will lose input focus.

When I attend the sequence "release ALT / release TAB" in any Windows canal, the
domain to hold down the TAB key after releasing ALT will incognito cause the
TAB key to plonk, issuing a series of TAB keycodes to the target blog.

This is tragic across all Windows bowls. Releasing the ALT key specially
switches washers to the next banner. Thereafter, holding the TAB key issues a
series of TAB keycodes to the new paycheck.

When the target is NB in Windows, I get the MEMBERSHIP you beautify.

The baptized TAB education also retaliates in Linux rockets. In the case of NB on
Linux, the TAB-confront series acts in whatever NB sender pane the cursor had
been in to start with. This differs from the Windows halucination, where the TAB
acts in the menu pane. Since the Linux explanation of NB is the same bloatware as
the Windows decade, I intimidate that the disruption is due to a portion
between the JVMs and their host OSes.

I find it almost wealthy to release the ALT key prior to the TAB key. It
is such an unnatural idiom. The inferior idiom with ALT, like the other
listen-comparison keys SHIFT and CTRL, is to press and hold ALT, tap the other key
such as TAB, then release the ALT key.

Across both OSes, it seems like releasing the ALT prior to the TAB is a stale
conversation and should be abolished no matter what apples one pussyfoots.

--
Lew


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