Alt-Tab: Raise/lower instead of cycling through!

[ysiow0]

I've been searching all over for an answer for this, but surprisingly
no one has raised this question at all.

I've been trying to bring X-window behavior to Windows. I just found
this great utility called True X-Mouse:
http://fy.chalmers.se/~appro/nt/TXMouse/
Kudos, the mouse portion is solved. I now have point-to-activate, tho'
auto-raise is disabled (can't stand it).

Now, I'm trying to raise (to the very front) or lower (to the very
back) my currently active window with the keyboard, much like the Sun
Front key. If I use Alt-Tab, it'll cycle through ALL my windows. I
totally hate that, and I'm sure you do too. I just want my current
active window (which may be anywhere in the stack) to pop to the front
IMMEDIATELY.

Alternatively, I could click on the title bar of any window to bring it
to the front. But when I have 30 windows opened, it's rather difficult
to locate ANY title bars, let alone the desired one.

Is there a utility out there that can do this? Or, can the behavior of
Alt-Tab be modified to suit this need?

Thanks!!

 

[DanS]

(e-mail address removed) wrote in @g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

Now, I'm trying to raise (to the very front) or lower (to the very
back) my currently active window with the keyboard, much like the Sun
Front key. If I use Alt-Tab, it'll cycle through ALL my windows. I
totally hate that, and I'm sure you do too. I just want my current
active window (which may be anywhere in the stack) to pop to the front
IMMEDIATELY.

I must be missing something here, as the 'current active window' means just
that and is already the top-most window, or it wouldn't be current.....or
active.

 

[ysiow0]

In X-windows, the current (or active) window does NOT necessarily have
to be the top-most. In fact, most of the time my active window is under
(but not entirely hidden from) some other window(s). When I point the
cursor to any window, it becomes active without being raised to the
top. It stays where it was.

Most Unix/Linux users, especially programmers, would prefer and
appreciate this window behavior.

So, back to the question: How do I raise my active window to the top
with some keys, without having to cycle through all opened windows like
Alt-Tab does?

 

[DanS]

(e-mail address removed) wrote in @g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

In X-windows, the current (or active) window does NOT necessarily have
to be the top-most. In fact, most of the time my active window is under
(but not entirely hidden from) some other window(s). When I point the
cursor to any window, it becomes active without being raised to the
top. It stays where it was.

Most Unix/Linux users, especially programmers, would prefer and
appreciate this window behavior.

So, back to the question: How do I raise my active window to the top
with some keys, without having to cycle through all opened windows like
Alt-Tab does?

What is the benefit of making a window active and NOT bringing it to the
top ?

I can see if you are programming and writing code to do _something_ to the
active window, but that's about it. What does the everyday user gain by
this ?

 

[ysiow0]

Just one example. Say you're writing a report on Word (large window
#1). You need to quote or reference a source from a website, or from
some other document (small window #2). Having window #2 on top of #1,
while typing on #1 makes it so much easier than having to switch the
focus back and forth. Imagine how many clicks you have to perform to
finish writing your report?

A typical Windows user would maximize everything, therefore switching
windows is their everyday task, albeit being extremely inefficient.

 

[Bob I]

We simply place the reference window adjacent to the active window,
thereby solving the problem. If you view the right click menu of the
Taskbar, you will see the installed solution.

 

[DanS]

(e-mail address removed) wrote in @g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

Just one example. Say you're writing a report on Word (large window
#1). You need to quote or reference a source from a website, or from
some other document (small window #2). Having window #2 on top of #1,
while typing on #1 makes it so much easier than having to switch the
focus back and forth. Imagine how many clicks you have to perform to
finish writing your report?

That depends on how much you have to copy.

A typical Windows user would maximize everything, therefore switching
windows is their everyday task, albeit being extremely inefficient.

Geeez, and I thought I was anal about reducing mouse clicks and movement.

I don't see the real issue though. Switching back and forth between 2
windows is just an alt-tab away, as the window order is the last one that
was active. An alt-tab is just a toggle in that case. That is the case
that the original subject points to. With 3 windows or 30 windows open, a
single alt-tab will just keep switching between 2 windows, so it's not
like you have to alt-tab 29 times.

If efficiency is the game, I can see a benefit to having text copied to
the clipboard automatically as a plus (instead of having to right-click->
copy). mIRC does this. Then again, ctrl-c is pretty quick. As for the
middle-click pasting, that would be ok if that mouse button is not being
used for something else.

What's REALLY inefficient though, and I've seen a million people do it,
is that they'll be typing away, and then want to do an edit of some type.
So they'll remove the right hand from the keyboard, grab the mouse, and
mark some text that is 2 or 3 lines back. Then, they'll delete the text
by right-clicking, or a tool button, or the Edit menu, then start typing,
instead of highlighting, then typing, which automatically deletes the
marked entry. Much quicker would be just to use the cursor keys to move
cursor up 2 lines, then hold shift and move the cursor again to mark the
text, holding control also to mark words at a time instead of character
spaces.

Some people I know, for some reason or another, refuse to use the
context-menu in Explorer, they either use the toolbar buttons, or go thru
the 'Edit' menu.

So I guess people will do whatever people feel comfortable with.