* Peter da Silva <pe...@taronga.com> [2010-12-21 21:15]: > On 2010-12-21, at 14:00, Aristotle Pagaltzis wrote: > >It's actually *technically impossible* to implement Focus > >Follows Mouse on MacOS. Do you want to know why? It's because > >of the menu bar at the top of the screen. > > It's impossible, but not because of the issue you listed. > That's an implementation detail that's really washed out by the > related user-interface detail. > > When you focus on a window, two things automatically happen. > > 1. The window is raised. We can stop doing that and make you > click on the title bar to raise or lower a window, so we can > work that one out. > > 2. The menu bar changes to match the focussed window. This > obviates the issue you mentioned, but brings up a bigger > one. Now you can't click on the menu bar because as soon as > you leave the app you lose the menu bar! > > To implement focus follows mouse on the Mac would require an > alternate mechanism to bring up the menu bar. Such as making it > a default contextual menu on the app.
That doesn't make it impossible to implement, merely hugely dilutes its usefulness in practice. That goes back to the point I argued in the other mail, that UI style is holistic and you can't expect to rip out or mix and match bits and pieces without reevaluating the entire equation every time. But even if you didn't mind losing coherence on MacOS, you still couldn't do it, in the general case, purely on technical grounds. Regards, -- Aristotle Pagaltzis // <http://plasmasturm.org/>
