NeXTSTEP worked exactly this way, and it was glorious. Its window manager simply had the concept of “no current focus.” Programs could not steal focus, they could only gain focus either by explicit user action, or grabbing it when nothing else was focused. When you started an application, there would be no focus while it loaded. If you waited, the new application would grab focus. If you moved on to a different window, the new application would pop up in the background. New windows, dialog boxes, and notification-type events would put an indicator on the application’s icon in the dock.
It’s… still around, in a way. Apple bought NeXT Computer, and it provided the BSD Unix base for MacOS X, as well as all of those classes with the ‘NS’ prefix. Of course, Apple pasted on a totally new UI. 🙁
Oh, so it was an OS, not a software package, and not open source :/ anyways, the characteristics you describe should(!) be easy enough to implement by any given window manager… Here’s hoping…
NeXTSTEP worked exactly this way, and it was glorious. Its window manager simply had the concept of “no current focus.” Programs could not steal focus, they could only gain focus either by explicit user action, or grabbing it when nothing else was focused. When you started an application, there would be no focus while it loaded. If you waited, the new application would grab focus. If you moved on to a different window, the new application would pop up in the background. New windows, dialog boxes, and notification-type events would put an indicator on the application’s icon in the dock.
That does indeed sound glorious. I am afraid to look it up because you spoke of it in past tense :(
It’s… still around, in a way. Apple bought NeXT Computer, and it provided the BSD Unix base for MacOS X, as well as all of those classes with the ‘NS’ prefix. Of course, Apple pasted on a totally new UI. 🙁
Oh, so it was an OS, not a software package, and not open source :/ anyways, the characteristics you describe should(!) be easy enough to implement by any given window manager… Here’s hoping…