You can't use Alt-Tab when you are in places

[David Barth]

When the Dash is open, ALT-Tab doesn't work.

[Rick Spencer (rick-rickspencer3)]

This is a serious impediment to the usability of the system. Keyboard usage is a critical element for users, not only disabled people who can't use the mouse. How are you supposed to exit places by keyboard? ALT Tab is very natural for me since that's how you already switch between apps. But in any case, you need *some* way for users to escape from places.

[Mark Shuttleworth (sabdfl)]

Agreed, Alt-TAB should Just Work.

[Neil J. Patel (njpatel)]

Escape is the unimplemented way to escape from places (will be done for next week) using the keyboard. It doesn't seem natural to me as Escape unless places was in the alt+tab switcher too (which would make sense, maybe).

We investigated the possibility of chaining the alt+tab event to the alt+tab window, but it doesn't seem possible in Mutter, due to the way alt-tab is grabbed. In any case, all ask Jason to update here with his findings.

[Mark Shuttleworth (sabdfl)]

If you're in the Apps Place, and launch an app, the Place closes and you
get the app. Similarly, if you're in the Apps Place, and you want to
switch to a running app, you should be able to do that with Alt-TAB.

Mark

[Neil J. Patel (njpatel)]

jason, please update on your findings.

[Neil J. Patel (njpatel)]

I'm marking this as won't fix as we won't encounter this problem in Compiz's places and we are unlikely to work on fixing the Mutter version.

[AJenbo (ajenbo)]

Shoudnt it just he changed to relate to mutter. And don't write it off before you actually test that it is solved when using compiz.

[Neil J. Patel (njpatel)]

I can assure you I wouldn't write it off if I had any doubts that it would effect the Compiz implementation in the first place (any bugs where there is a doubt I have carried over to latest Unity). However, I am not going to keep a bug open that I know I'm just going to close in a months time but doesn't require any new code than what already needs to be written, as the behavior has now been documented and recorded in this bug and by me, the person writing the software.

With the new implementation of the views, we no longer have to grab the keyboard to get text input. This means that when you are in the dash view, we are not blocking Compiz from reacting to the "Alt+Tab" key press. Together with this, we second we lose keyboard focus, the dash will close automatically. These two certainties of the implementation guarantee that this bug will not and cannot exist.