[Bug 808777] Re: Determine if / how we should switch workspaces when focusing Thunderbird

[Chris Coulson]

I never said it shouldn't be implemented, so I'm not sure why you
assumed that we were using the fact that this doesn't work in Evolution
as justification for not fixing it in Thunderbird. I just noted that the
problem has never been solved in Evolution, and AIUI this is because of
technical reasons rather than not wanting to fix it. For starters, there
is nothing exposed from GTK (or in other toolkits AFAIK) that allows
applications to switch workspaces. Individual applications either need
to understand the EWMH spec (using something like libwnck) and gain the
functionality to select workspaces themselves, or the default behaviour
of the window manager(s) need to be changed to do this automatically
when an application sends a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW message (this may have
other consequences, but I'm not a WM expert). The first option is WM-
specific, depending on whether the particular WM uses viewports (compiz)
or virtual desktops (metacity).

> It is highly confusing to click on an menu entry and nothing is
happening.

Well, something *does* happen right now, even if it's not ideal.
Currently, the WM visualizes this in the same way as it would for an
application that sets its urgent hint - in Unity, this results in the
launcher icon wiggling, it's arrow turning blue and the blue triangle in
the top-left corner of the screen appearing. In classic GNOME, it
results in the Thunderbird icon in the taskbar flashing.

> Furthermore, clicking on the launcher symbol of Thunderbird will always focus the
> Tbird window. Why not the same about the Messaging Menu entry?

When you click on the launcher, the shell is responsible for focusing
the application and changing the workspace (ie, Unity). When you click
in items in the messaging menu, these actions are handled directly by
the application rather than the shell, so the application becomes
responsible for directly manipulating the window manager.

In future, please avoid jumping to incorrect conclusions and then
posting rants on bug reports. Rants like this aren't really welcome
here, and if you wish to do this then there are other avenues for you to
do so which are less disruptive to our work (ie, posting in forums)

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Title:
  Determine if / how we should switch workspaces when focusing
  Thunderbird

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