Comment 6 for bug 755357

For me the inconsistency is this: that maximised and unfocussed windows at the fore of a monitor are determined to 'own' the panel, in that clicking on the panel focuses it, but maximised and unfocussed windows that aren't at the fore of a monitor do not own the panel and therefore do not have any kind of window bar that can be clicked to grab focus. In fact if focus is on a different monitor, no window owns the panel on this one: it's just dead space!

One argument is that the window at the fore of any monitor should be the one associated with the panel, as it is when it has focus. The other argument is that the maximised window is without a window bar that can be used to grab focus without clicking any window content. From either point of view the panel should not be wasted space: clicking it should focus one of these two windows, with my preference being the maximised window (I think it's more intuitive and practical).

The initial complaint, however, was that the title is not shown for the unfocussed window. I think the counter to this argument initially has a stronger case, i.e. that focus needs to be indicated, and that is currently done by either displaying or hiding the window title. The intuitive way to distinguish, however, is simply the same way as is used for unmaximised windows: the style of the title text (e.g. greyed for unfocussed). The trouble here is that, alongside my previous suggestion regarding the function of clicking the panel, changing focus between monitors would result in the panel on the monitor with the rearward maximised window switching title between the foremost and maximised window.

Thoughts?