Applications already running should be focussed when selected in Applications menu

[Adamalton]

If I have an application running and I then go to the 'Applications' menu and select that application, it doesn't focus the application, it opens a new window for it. I find this unintuitive and annoying. It means that I have to remember which applications I've got running and which I haven't, and to then take the correct action (switch to application or select it from Applications menu) when I want to switch to a different application.

Other flavours of Linux have the behaviour that when you select an application from the Applications menu, if it's already open then it just switches to it. This is also the behaviour exhibited by OS X.

Freya 0.3.

[Adamalton (adamalton)]

It's worth noting that for applications which only ever have one window (e.g. System Settings) the behaviour is even more weird because it doesn't open a new window, it just does nothing. So if System Settings (or another single-window app) is already open (but is hidden behind other windows) and you try to open the application from the Applications menu then nothing happens. Nada. Zilch. The application remains hidden. This is just massively confusing.

[m (elmato)]

It should be noted this is not just limited to the Applications menu but also when selecting items from wingpanel plugins (eg sound settings from wingpanel-sound-indicator) in addition to opening a file from pantheon-files that open in an already running application (as outlined in this bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/elementaryos/+bug/1014120)

[Jack Desert (jackdesert)]

It's not only the applications menu that exhibits this problem. Any apps that live in the upper task bar (such as Skype or Telegram) have the same problem. I click Telegram --> Open Telegram, and nothing happens because it's already open but it's just underneath another application.