Re: Obscure IDL / sawfish window manager interactions

[Kenneth Mankoff <mankoff(at)lasp.colorado.edu>]

>   This is an interesting one.  I'm running IDL 5.4 on a RedHat6.2
>machine with XFree v4.0.2, and the latest Helix-Gnome with the sawfish
>window manager.  

I'm running XFree v4.0.1a, Redhat 7.0, Default install gnome & sawfish,
and IDL 5.3.

>When ever I put up an IDL draw window, I cannot focus it or move it.  
>The only thing I can do is to `shade' it (i.e. hide all but the title
>bar) using the gnome toolbar.  Once I've done that I can unshade it and
>move it, until I write to it (e.g. am IDL plot command) from which point
>it's stuck again!

Go to your sawfish configurator (i access mine from inside the Gnome
Control Center). I'm going to tell you what options i have set for my
"focus" properties. I will list variable-names rather than the textual
descriptions.

To see all the options & the variable names:
Meta -> Expert
Miscellaneous -> Show Variable Names of Each Customization Option

now my focus configuration:
Focus ->ignore-window-input-hint
	focus-click-through
	focus-windows-when-mapped
	transients-get-focus
	
The different window types & relationships between a program (IDL) and the
windows it spawns (dialogs, transients, options, etc...) is what I think
has caused your problem. 

Hope this helps, 
-ken.