Alt-Tab window switching behavior [$15]

[David Wu]

This is from a users perspective... when I do Alt-Tab in switching applications, I hold down the Alt, then pressing Tab until I find the application that I want, then (without releasing the ALT) I would left-click on the window that I want to activate. It suprised me that clicking on the window does not immediately activate the window (rather, I had to release the ALT).

It would be nice if by either releasing the ALT or left-clicking on the window serves to activate that window.

Not really a bug, but a nice-to-have.

[David Wu (daviwu)]

But if you try doing Alt-Tab very fast (and immediately release the Alt and Tab), sometimes it will think that the ALT is still being held, and I would need to hit on ALT again in-order to gain focus.

[romeo m (romeo-mihalcea)]

+1. Such an annoying thing. ALT + TAB is so painful for me that I'm considering switching til it gets fixed. I'm a developer and I always have 6+ applications open. I stopped using ALT+TAB in favor of mouse clicks because it never works.

ALT+TAB needs to be fast I don't care about your slide/bump/quirk/splash/fade/pop/poff effects when doing it. I just want to get to the desired window. 90% of the times it gets stuck and I have to click ALT again or click the stuck icon on the menu to release it.

Hitting ALR+TAB and ALT+TAB fast immediately almost always I get on the wrong window instead of switching back and forth from current window to the last one focused.

[Vitor Campos Mirra (vitorcmirra)]

+1. I too think t's inconvenient to use an animation for ALT + TAB, it's not fast enough. it's actually very annoying.

can someone point me to the source of this implementation? I'am a developer but i have no idea where to find it.

[Gacha (gatis-tomsons)]

+1. This is the only thing that I don't like in elementaryOS. I think this is a usability bug, at least we should be able to disable it through dconf.

[Brad Leupen (brad-m)]

+1

while this looks cool the first time you use it, elementary's alt+tab functionality is a source of much frustration for me, particularly in a dual monitor environment. when i am working, the "locus of my attention" is on the focused application, not the plank bar. the window minimize animation is also very distracting.

I would love to have the option to revert to a more traditional switcher with the following features:
1. its fast fast fast.
2. no animations, blur, or anything that could slow it down
3. dialog switcher appears in the middle of the screen containing the focused application.
4. alt+tab / shift+alt+tab moves among open applications
5. left clicking an icon in the switcher opens the application

[David Wu (daviwu)]

I upgraded to luna-stable, and alt-tab is now much smoother !

[Halász Tibor (tibor-halasz)]

I'm developer too, I have more than 6 open application and the ALT+TAB switching is very annoying in eOS.
It would be better if it works as "Alternate tab" in Gnome-shell, because it shows the content of the windows in thumbnails too.
By the way eOs is my favorit Linux distro!

[Alessio Fattorini (alessio.fattorini)]

+1 for me, and i quote Brad Leupen
"when i am working, the "locus of my attention" is on the focused application, not the plank bar. the window minimize animation is also very distracting."
Please change it! It works as "Alternate tab" but not like the only choice!

[Alessio Fattorini (alessio.fattorini)]

Hi people, about alt-tab behaviour i feel a bug here. Can i open a discussion about?
https://bugs.launchpad.net/gala/+bug/1220718

[Isaac Parris (dexcasul)]

+1 for this.

I also run a dual-monitor setup and am a keyboard-centric user. I often switch between documents/editors with alt-tab and my hands rarely touch the mouse when working. Having all the windows fade out is jarring. Especially when I do it quickly, the windows twitch.

I have yet to find a way to turn off this behaviour, although all the other animations can be turned off.

The only way around this I can find is to use alt-esc instead. It has a ugly black border and bugs out when switching between 3+ programs, but it works well enough for two.

Gnome 3 hit the nail on the head with this one. It takes about 1sec for the HUD to pop up, and it's fast and efficient.

This is the only thing that keeps me from using eOS as my main system.I hope to see this animation changed with ISIS.

[Tom Beckmann (tombeckmann)]

We will have plugin support in Isis and I will make sure that we get an alternative alt-tab-plugin until Isis is released or shortly after. (so either someone else writes one until then or I'll do so).

[Alessio Fattorini (alessio.fattorini)]

"This is the only thing that keeps me from using eOS as my main system.I hope to see this animation changed with ISIS."
Same for me

[Tom Beckmann (tombeckmann)]

I started an implementation now, please have a look at this doc and make suggestions if you like https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kLVnfWb0o0ay3J1s2VuVoJGvxfL_ZlNk0nQzyOO1AcA/edit#

[Alessio Fattorini (alessio.fattorini)]

Thanks fantastic! Thanks for the mockup

2014-07-18 13:54 GMT+02:00 Tom Beckmann <email address hidden>:
> I started an implementation now, please have a look at this doc and make
> suggestions if you like
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kLVnfWb0o0ay3J1s2VuVoJGvxfL_ZlNk0nQzyOO1AcA/edit#
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1154696
>
> Title:
> Alt-Tab window switching behavior
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/gala/+bug/1154696/+subscriptions

[Stas Sușcov (sushkov)]

There's an alternative implementation started by Tom.

https://github.com/tom95/gala-alternate-alt-tab

I'm trying to keep up with upstream gala changes by doing periodic builds of a patched gala package that includes the alternative alt-tab switcher.

The PPA for builds can be found at:
https://launchpad.net/~sushkov/+archive/ubuntu/personal/

Any feedback and testing help is much appreciated.

Any existing bounty should either go to Tom or be reserved for specific bugs that could be discovered.
I will be happy to review and help with any code.

This bug should stay open until we have a proper gala-plugin package.
Probably worth redirecting some bounty into that direction.

[Brandon Taylor (raisonbran648)]

I'm having similar issues with Alt-Tab. I would like to disable the visual effect of hiding all background windows when alt tabbing. It's disorienting to me.

I think it would be best to temporarily bring the "focused" tab window to the front so you can see it, but do not animate hide any other windows in the background. This allows you to visually see the programs you are cycling through, but does not disorient or jar users switching at higher speeds.

For example when quickly tabbing from a fullscreen browser window to a calculator, the browser is quickly animated and faded out and then immediately pops back to where it was, now with the calculator on top. This is a good effect if you tab slowly and reduces clutter, but for faster tabbing it becomes disorienting and unappealing. for that reason I think it should be an option that can be disabled.

[David Wu (daviwu)]

In Freya alt-tab is super smooth and fast! Thanks everyone for your attention :)

[Alessio Fattorini (alessio.fattorini)]

It's fast but i want the other behaviour!

2015-04-18 15:08 GMT+02:00 David Wu <email address hidden>:

> In Freya alt-tab is super smooth and fast! Thanks everyone for your
> attention :)
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1154696
>
> Title:
> Alt-Tab window switching behavior
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/gala/+bug/1154696/+subscriptions
>

[Dyr26 (d-llop8)]

I'm still having this problem in Freya.

[Eddie Dunn (eddie-dunn)]

Quickly alt-tabbing between maximized windows works fine in Freya. However, as soon as you do it where a window is not maximized, you still get that jarring shrink/grow effect.

To be honest, the animation only looks good the first few times you do it. Then it becomes increasingly annoying, for me to the point that I can't use eOS as my main OS any more. There should at least be an option to turn this animation off.

[David Wu (daviwu)]

Maybe this should be in elementary-tweaks to have an option to remove the
animation? It has the option to turn off (and change duration) of the
animations for open, close, snap, minimize, and workspace-switch.... it is
just missing the option to turn it off for alt-tab.

https://launchpad.net/elementary-tweaks

On Wed, May 6, 2015 at 5:58 PM, Eddie Dunn <email address hidden> wrote:

> Quickly alt-tabbing between maximized windows works fine in Freya.
> However, as soon as you do it where a window is not maximized, you still
> get that jarring shrink/grow effect.
>
> To be honest, the animation only looks good the first few times you do
> it. Then it becomes increasingly annoying, for me to the point that I
> can't use eOS as my main OS any more. There should at least be an option
> to turn this animation off.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1154696
>
> Title:
> Alt-Tab window switching behavior
>
> Status in Gala Window Manager:
> In Progress
>
> Bug description:
> This is from a users perspective... when I do Alt-Tab in switching
> applications, I hold down the Alt, then pressing Tab until I find the
> application that I want, then (without releasing the ALT) I would
> left-click on the window that I want to activate. It suprised me that
> clicking on the window does not immediately activate the window
> (rather, I had to release the ALT).
>
> It would be nice if by either releasing the ALT or left-clicking on
> the window serves to activate that window.
>
> Not really a bug, but a nice-to-have.
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/gala/+bug/1154696/+subscriptions
>

[Stas Sușcov (sushkov)]

That would be great. Thank you guys for considering this!

There's already some work and packages done here:
https://github.com/tom95/gala-alternate-alt-tab

I'm also an user of the version from above.

[Rui Carmo (rcarmo+launchpad)]

I would _really_ like this to be shipped as an update to Loki. The animation is slow and distracting, and significantly detracts from the user experience.

[Maxim Taranov (png2378)]

https://www.bountysource.com/issues/931580-alt-tab-window-switching-behavior