Change window focus behaviour on `\ll`: Focus the newly created viewer window, not vim

[nasenatmer]

First, thanks for your great work on this project again :)

Although we talked about it recently and said it would be more intuitive if vimtex returns window focus to vim after the viewer has been started due to successful compilation by \ll, I think I've changed my view here.

Whenever I have a new window in front of any other window, I assume that this is the one in focus and start using key strokes (eg with zathura in order to set width, scroll down or something like that). However, these keys are sent to vim as the focus is returned to it when the viewer is opened for the firmt time, which often irritates me.

Although I'd appreciate if the default behaviour would change, I'd equally be happy to know which part of vimtex#util#execute needs changed in my personal fork so I can change this behaviour locally.

[lahwaacz]

Wait, the vim window is focused but it still remains in "background"? This sounds more like a problem with the window manager...

[nasenatmer]

Indeed. Workflow is as follows:

1. Open vim to edit tex file
2. press \ll, compilation starts
3. when compilation has ended successfully, zathura opens
4. openbox returns focus to vim, while zathura is still in the foreground

Did I mis-configure something with openbox? Here is my rc.xml, the only thing I remember to have configured that is related to this, is that I want mouse cursor to focus a window and to place new windows under mouse cursor.

[lahwaacz]

I'm not sure, I haven't used Openbox for quite some time now... Perhaps it's disabled by the raiseOnFocus value? But allegedly the windows would be raised even as you move the mouse, which is probably not what you want.

Anyway I think that the focus should be changed only as new windows open, so ideally vimtex itself would never set focus. Unfortunately starting Zathura again to sync when the compilation finishes means that it will get focus, which is then set back to vim by the callback in vimtex. This also means that focus on a third window will not be preserved, so isn't there a way to sync the PDF viewer without starting the viewer again, which would also let the window manager manage the focus?

[lervag]

I've not directly addressed this issue yet, but I've pushed a patch that should fix some minor itches. Could you please test the latest version and see if it helps somewhat?

[nasenatmer]

Wow, so much replies here, but I first have to apologise, it seems I didn't make my problem clear enough.

The whole scenario I was talking about was only about the first time a viewer is opened by vimtex' \ll command.

I was not concerned with the behaviour of \lv.

Thanks for the update, @lervag, in the current version, \ll opens the viewer after successful compilation and then refocuses and raises the vim window. I clearly prefer that in comparison to the earlier behaviour and I think it is a great compromise!

However, as of now it seems that \lv does not get whether a viewer is open already and opens a second (or third or fourth) instance of it.

after \ll, \li output is as follows

b:vimtex : mwe
  root : '/home/jakob/tmp/latex/mwe'
  aux : '/home/jakob/tmp/latex/mwe/mwe.aux'
  log : '/home/jakob/tmp/latex/mwe/mwe.log'
  out : '/home/jakob/tmp/latex/mwe/mwe.pdf'
  tex : '/home/jakob/tmp/latex/mwe/mwe.tex'
  tmp : '/tmp/jakob/vG4ctdf/1'
  pid : '10107'
  cmd_latexmk_compile : 'cd ''/home/jakob/tmp/latex/mwe'' && max_print_line=2000 latexmk -pdf -e ''$pdflatex =~ s/ / -file-line-error /'' -pvc -
e ''$success_cmd = "vim --servername  --remote-expr \"vimtex\#latexmk\#callback(1)\""'' -e ''$failure_cmd = "vim --servername  --remote-expr \"v
imtex\#latexmk\#callback(0)\""'' -e ''$new_viewer_always = "0"'' -e ''$pdf_update_method = "0"'' -e ''$pdf_previewer = "start xdg-open "'' ''mwe
.tex'' >/tmp/jakob/vG4ctdf/1 2>&1'
  base : 'mwe.tex'
  viewer
    init : function('6')
    view : function('7')
    latexmk_append_argument : function('8')

and xdotool search -class Zathura returns:

48234498
48234500

After I do \lv, see a second zathura open, \li returns:

b:vimtex : mwe
  root : '/home/jakob/tmp/latex/mwe'
  aux : '/home/jakob/tmp/latex/mwe/mwe.aux'
  log : '/home/jakob/tmp/latex/mwe/mwe.log'
  out : '/home/jakob/tmp/latex/mwe/mwe.pdf'
  tex : '/home/jakob/tmp/latex/mwe/mwe.tex'
  tmp : '/tmp/jakob/vG4ctdf/1'
  pid : '10107'
  cmd_latexmk_compile : 'cd ''/home/jakob/tmp/latex/mwe'' && max_print_line=2000 latexmk -pdf -e ''$pdflatex =~ s/ / -file-line-error /'' -pvc -
e ''$success_cmd = "vim --servername  --remote-expr \"vimtex\#latexmk\#callback(1)\""'' -e ''$failure_cmd = "vim --servername  --remote-expr \"v
imtex\#latexmk\#callback(0)\""'' -e ''$new_viewer_always = "0"'' -e ''$pdf_update_method = "0"'' -e ''$pdf_previewer = "start xdg-open "'' ''mwe
.tex'' >/tmp/jakob/vG4ctdf/1 2>&1'
  base : 'mwe.tex'
  viewer
    cmd_view : 'xdg-open  ''/home/jakob/tmp/latex/mwe/mwe.pdf'''
    init : function('6')
    view : function('7')
    latexmk_append_argument : function('8')

xdotool search -class Zathurayields:

48234498
54525954
48234500
54525956

Something in the callback seems to not get the pid of the viewer window correctly?

[lervag]

It seems my work yesterday was not tested properly. I don't really know/understand exactly why it failed, but I found a simple fix that seems to work well.

So, right now it seems things work mostly as expected. The question is then: Is the expected behaviour now good, or should it change. Perhaps I should add an option?

[nasenatmer]

Great, \li prints the correct pid of zathura and \lv doesn't open additional windows now. The latest fix seems to have solved this issue now!

I'm quite happy with window behaviour after pressing \ll in the current state: \ll opens the viewer, but returns focus to vim and also raises vim so it is before the viewer window.

Personally, I'm not yet happy with \lv: \lv focuses the viewer window, but without raising it. This means that at least in my setup (irrespective of whether I set the mouse to be able to focus windows or not), focus is set on a window that may not be visible (because vim is in the foreground) since I always have a maximised terminal window on each desktop.

In my view, there are two possibilities:

1. \lv just does forward search without focusing the viewer. In this case, no window events whatsoever happen.
2. \lv does forward search and focuses the viewer window. In this case, the viewer window should also be raised so it becomes visible if it was behind any other window.

But this is just how I see it, I'd be more than happy if other users would contribute as to how they feel windows should behave…

[lervag]

I guess the raise behaviour is different between different window managers. For consistency, I've added a raise for the viewer focus function, which in practice implements your second possibility.

Now it remains to decide what is the best default behaviour, and if it should be optional. Personally I find the current behaviour satisfying, and as such I propose to leave this issue as solved.

[Konfekt]

Leaving focus in Vim is fine, but the viewer window should become visible, that's been an itch for me. So how about

\lv does forward search and focuses the viewer window so that it becomes visible. Then returns the focus to Vim.

[nasenatmer]

@Konfekt: I'm not sure whether I get you correctly: By „becoming visible“ you mean to raise the viewer to the front? And then want to return focus to vim?

If I am ricght, this means that if you have a small screen where you can only have one window in the front at a time, you have the focus on vim while the viewer window is in front and the only one visible? To me, this doesn't sound sensible.

Or do you mean "viewer visible" as in "not minimised, but still behind vim"?

As of now, I'm fully happy with window behaviour and think this would be a sane default. But this is of course only my stance.

[Konfekt]

Yeah, I meant that the focus rests in Vim but the viewer is made visible if it is not partially or fully covered by the current Vi instance but by any other window.

[lahwaacz]

I don't think you can get a sensible default behaviour from vimtex without making assumptions on the window manager behaviour. For example in Openbox "focus a window" does not imply "raise a window", which I thought was true for most of the floating window managers. Then there are tiling window managers, which will most likely twist many of the assumptions. For exmaple in i3, opening a window which is configured to open on specified workspace does not move focus to the window, unless the target workspace is "visible", i.e. the "currently active" workspace or a workspace assigned to an external monitor.

I think there are only two sensible alternatives for vimtex:

1. don't change focus at all and let the window manager do its job,
2. or make it configurable.

As for no. 2, perhaps it's time to finally unify the viewer interface and expose the commands itself for configuration? I think they could be format strings where vimtex would replace the relevant information (path to file, synctex info etc).