A parent window of a dialog cannot be focused

[James Haigh]

It is not possible to minimise, move, etc, a window that has a dialog.

For example Alt-F7 moves the focused window, but Alt-Tabbing to the parent window immediately passes focus to the dialog.

Solution:
Parent windows should be able to have focus, but when focused any click or keystroke should immediately prompt it to transfer focus to the dialog. If the dialog is minimised, it should be restored.

Suggested priority of implementation: Low

[James Haigh (james.r.haigh)]

Bug #830637 depends on this.

[John Lea (johnlea)]

The correct fix for this issue is sheet style dialogues, but unfortunately due to time constraints it looks like they will be dropped from the Oneiric release.

[James Haigh (james.r.haigh)]

Hi John.

"The correct fix for this issue is sheet style dialogues"

That is /a/ fix, but I can't imagine all applications using them immediately. I would also like the choice as to whether to use them or not as a system preference.

In the mean time it would be nice to solve this issue. Here are some use cases that just don't work _from the keyboard_:
* view or take a screenshot of the parent (also applies to mouse)
* minimise the parent (and dialog unless bug #830637 is solved)
* move the parent
* maximise, unmaximise and resize the parent

Please could you provide a link to where sheet-style dialogues and their related discussion are centred. I would like to request the ability to hide or 'roll-up' the sheet-style dialog and view what's underneath. If the window is clicked or receives keyboard input, the dialog should immediately unhide.

Thanks.