Alt-Tab and Focus-Follows-Mouse

 June 2nd, 2012
focus, tech
I have several terminals I leave in their own part of the screen. [1] I have focus follow the mouse [2], so to switch to one of these terminals I move the mouse. When I press alt-tab, it's never because I want to switch to or see these windows, it's because I want to bring up a hidden or partially obscured window. With focus-follows-mouse alt-tab should only affect windows that are stacked.

(Because in my case "non-overlapping windows" and "XTerms" are synonomous, I can set Compiz to do what I want by turning off alt-tab for XTerm windows. I like it a lot.)


[1] On my my desktop. On my laptop I run everything full-screen.

[2] When I move the mouse over a window and start typing, the text shows up in that window. The "focus" switches between windows based on mouse location. See

Comment via: google plus, facebook, substack

Recent posts on blogs I like:

AI incompetence often comes from misalignment

Sometimes I see people say “I’m not worried about AI risk because AIs are really bad at things.” I think this is a misunderstanding.

via Thing of Things April 27, 2026

You should try contra dancing

a story of middle school Ben • a not-very-illuminating description of the mechanics • flow, joy, and community • the antidote to the rest of life • how to try contra

via benkuhn.net April 24, 2026

On AI writing in 2026

I use AI to write a little bit: I ask it for high level feedback on blog post drafts, make mechanical edits, and sometimes use it to brainstorm options for wording at a paragraph level. It’s unusual that I accept its wording or changes without modificatio…

via Home April 16, 2026

more     (via openring)