GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 134352
Workspaces should maintain their own mouse positions
Last modified: 2004-12-22 21:47:04 UTC
When I warp from workspace A to workspace B, then move the mouse, then warp back to A, the mouse should go back to where it was when I left A. This is the only way for workspaces to "make sense" as independent places to do work. This is particularly important for sloppy focus, because I want the window that had the focus when I left a workspace to have it when I return. That implies that the mouse needs to be in the same place.
Personally, I thought that the current way it works is the only way for it to "make sense." Your method would seem confusing to me (and yes, I use sloppy focus); but then again, I'm just a bugsquad member. I'm setting the priority to enhancement and adding the bugsquad keyword...
I think that most people would just keep losing their mouse (and be very very confused) if we tried to do something like this. Though it does have some appeal, I don't think that most people really think of workspaces as independent in every way. In particular, I think that most people probably think of the cursor as "the mouse" rather than "a cursor" and expect that it will be where they leave it regardless of workspace. Also imagine a situation where you switch workspaces using the workspace switcher applet. Your mouse would keep warping around, and you'd have to adjust and correct it, especially if you made a mistake and went to the wrong workspace. It's an interesting idea, but I don't think that it would work.