[Discuss] keyboard focus

[Craig Miller]

Bernie,

While it is true that older eyes (I have them) find it harder to 
distinguish between active and non-active windows (aka focus), Linux is 
full of choice. If the defaults aren't working for you select something 
else. In Linux Mint (which is based off Ubuntu) there is a "Settings 
App" called "Appearance". You can change the colouring of the windows, 
icons, fonts, etc.

As for detecting key press, key up, and so forth, I suggest you try 
'xev'. It is a diagnostic tool that will show you both key down and key 
up events as well as key scan codes and other good info.

I hope this helps,

Craig...

On 4/2/23 20:17, bctill wrote:
> Hi all --
>
> In windows, there are very clear visual cues letting me know which 
> window my keystrokes will be sent to.  This window is said to "have 
> the focus".  The keyboard is a producer of events (mostly KeyDown and 
> KeyUp events) and these events are routed to the window that has the 
> focus.  This window is a consumer of events, so we have a textbook 
> case of producer/consumer concurrency.
>
> In Ubuntu with the default Gnome desktop, visual cues are few and far 
> between.  Windows don't even have borders, so I have to squint to 
> distinguish between the text in my editor and the text in my terminal, 
> and I certainly can't tell by looking at the screen which window will 
> receive the next key I type.
>
> How is keyboard input handled in Linux?  How are keystrokes routed to 
> windows?  Do these questions apply to Linux, or perhaps X11? Or do the 
> answers differ between GTK and Qt, or even from desktop to desktop?
>
> Is there a way to get better visual cues from the desktop?  Can I make 
> window borders or title bars change color to indicate where my 
> keystrokes will go?  Can I separate the processing of KeyDown and 
> KeyUp events?  Can I detect when several keys are down at the same 
> time?  And, again, if "it depends", then what does it depend on?
>
> Regards,
> -- Bernie.
>
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