Re:Please Don't Steal My Focus
by ivankirigin on Wednesday December 05, 2007 @07:57PM
(#86462)
The underlying platform in question is partially at fault here. Why do you need to restart immediately? Certainly if there were an imminent security fix to stop the spread of a worm, you could justify the notification to restart immediately.
The real solution is to have a coherent security policy in the OS. Then things won't get urgent for automatic updates. Beyond updates, there shouldn't be much need to ever have an app take focus after already running. A visual notification like those little hopping icons in OS X works very well.
Your point about an app taking focus makes sense. It's really a question of etiquette. A reasonable underlying system would allow apps to take focus, but it would less often be urgent and most likely in response to user input, not not interrupting.
The real solution is to have a coherent security policy in the OS. Then things won't get urgent for automatic updates. Beyond updates, there shouldn't be much need to ever have an app take focus after already running. A visual notification like those little hopping icons in OS X works very well.
Your point about an app taking focus makes sense. It's really a question of etiquette. A reasonable underlying system would allow apps to take focus, but it would less often be urgent and most likely in response to user input, not not interrupting.