GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 309484
Alt+esc should put the current window to last in z-order
Last modified: 2020-11-07 12:35:37 UTC
Distribution/Version: Ubuntu Hoary / Breezy-20050703 Expected behaviour: A single alt+esc should put the current window to the bottom in z-order. Actual behaviour: Striking alt+esc seems to be synonymous to striking alt+tab once: it swaps the first and the second window in z-order. In other systems, such as MS Windows, I've found this proposed behaviour very handy: I can quickly "abandon" a window if I know I won't be needing it for some time. Example: Suppose I'm working on something that requires rapid altering between eg. a word processor and a dictionary, and then I need to quickly access XMMS to pick an album to play. When I'm done with XMMS, I'd like to forget it altogether with alt+esc (thus restoring the z-order state I had before using XMMS). With the proposed behaviour, alt+tab would immediately do what I want it to (that is: alter between the word processor and the dictionary again).
I think we should keep the current Alt+Esc behavior by default as a number of people want that behavior. We could add another keybinding, maybe with no key by default, that could be configured to do what you are saying, if we don't already have it (I think we have a "lower" but it may not unfocus and may not fix up the tab order as you suggest) Anyway, a "taking patches" kind of feature probably but if someone patches it probably it should be a new binding, not replace the alt+esc one.
I wonder how people are actually using alt+esc. The current behaviour should not be changed if most people (of those who actually use alt+esc) use it as a synonym for a single alt+tab stroke - so that they expect the inactivated window to be lowered to second-to-topmost. A clarification: the change I'm proposing only alters what happens to the z-order of the inactivated window, after releasing alt. The proposed behaviour change would not hinder people from using alt+esc to cycle through many windows (by holding the alt key down and hitting esc repeatedly (the equivalent of alt+tab but with showing each window contents)). So, one question is whether this change would distract existing alt+esc users. The current alt+esc action is named "Move between windows immediately". There is also a "Lower window below other windows" action, but as Havoc points out, it doesn't alter z-order or focus at all. If it seems clear that the current alt+esc behaviour should not be changed, maybe a new keybinding could indeed be added - maybe something like "Abandon/ignore/bury window" (but I hope someone finds a better term :). This new keybinding would put the current window to the bottom of the z-order and then raise and give focus the next window.
I use Alt-Esc only for cycling through windows. When I want to swap between two windows I use Alt-Tab for the simple reason that Tab is easier to reach than Esc I didn't realize that Windows puts the current window to the bottom of z order, but now that you mention it, it does sound like a good idea. I'm starting to wonder if I actually rely on it in Windows without realizing it consciously. (Now I see that Alt-Esc makes perfect sense as a shortcut on Windows where Esc is regarded as a "go away!" button. Alas, it's totally inconsistent in GNOME now that (2.0+) we treat Esc as a "cancel" button exclusively)
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