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Comment by mathstuf | Hacker News Reader

My issue is that some apps take a while to start. While waiting, I go to do something else and then get brought back when the app finally decides to wake up. Apps being able to steal focus from a system password entry dialog is pure incompetence IMO.

Fun side note: apps can steal focus from the lock screen password entry too (maybe this one has been fixed). Made it "fun" to log into locked screens while CI spawned dozens of windows in the background.

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I want user interaction to be free of race conditions. If I click on an app that takes 1 second to start, then start typing, the resulting behavior shouldn't change based on whether I started typing before or after the window appears. In both cases, the input shouldn't make it to the previously focused app, and perhaps the input should even be buffered and sent to the new window once it appears (though I'm unsure if this is a good idea).

And if you click back on the old window after clicking an app icon (which is slow to load), the newly opening app perhaps should not steal focus (interrupting user interaction at an unpredictable point) once it does pop up (though I'm unsure if this is an ideal user experience, how should the new app indicate its presence?).

> My issue is that some apps take a while to start. While waiting, I go to do something else and then get brought back when the app finally decides to wake up.

Agreed. I think I filed a Radar about this a dozen years ago or so.

But the new Monterey behavior doesn't solve this problem, because it only applies to very limited circumstances.

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