Is There a Solution for Focus-Hungry Apps?

V.Toulias asks: "Over the past few years, I have seen a rise in the percentage of applications installed in my Windows box that do not ask nicely for my attention but force themselves into view when they think they have something important to tell me. Mail clients that pop-up into view when a new email is sent or received, instant messengers that pop up when a new message arrives, browser pop-ups that... pop-up even though the page is loading in a 'background window', informational OS messages, It-seems-that-you're-writing-a-letter app helpers, security warnings and the list goes on. It doesn't take a science study to realize the adverse effects that this phenomenon is causing on your productivity and concentration. So, apart from the obvious suggestion of switching OS, is there any other solution to this disturbing trend?"

Comments

two monitors

[russellh]

Use two monitors, and do your real work on the secondary screen.

I assume you're talking about Windows. This happens on the Mac to some extent, usually when launching apps - eg when I launch Mail then switch back to the app I was using, of course, new windows in Mail throw themselves on the top. This was not a problem in classic Mac OS which enforced application level window layers, which - to be perfectly honest - I prefer for this very reason.

But I've found two monitors do the trick.

It's more than just an annoyance

[aminorex]

It's not just an annoyance, it's a bug. For example, when I'm executing a complex keyboard operation, and a dialog pops up and steals my focus, a bunch of work may have been destroyed. It's a security issue as well. When I'm filling in a password (or having one filled in for me by automation), and an instant messenger suddenly pops up, taking those keystrokes, its a sordid tale of woe. No alert should ever take focus unless it's of the "core meltdown, imminent mass casualties" variety.

One could write an app which monitors keystrokes and tracks focus, which calculates focus independently of the window manager, and detects any discrepancies, and corrects them as soon as possible, but it will still leak events sometimes, inevitably, unless it acts as a translation filter and checks at every event for correct focus.

Symptom of a larger problem

[cunkel]

The popups and focus stealing are a symptom of a larger problem: application authors assume you bought a computer just to run their application.

• You bought a computer just so that you could run AIM, so of course it should notify you loudly whenever something "interesting" happens.
  
  
• You bought a computer just so that you could run MS Office, so of course it should hang around in memory all the time so that it will start faster.
  
  
• You bought a computer just so that you could run Java applets, so of course there should be a program running all the time that checks for updates to the Java runtime. Also there should be a little coffee cup in the tray, right?
  
  
• You bought a computer just so you could read PDFs, so Adobe Reader ought to install icons on your desktop, and in the root of the start menu. Never mind that you always open a PDF by double clicking on it, or automatically inside a web browser, and so you will never actually open Adobe Reader directly.
  
  
• You bought a computer just so that you have something to scan for viruses, so of course McAfee virus scanner better tell you when it updates its virus definitions.
  
  

...didn't you?