Bug#476671: gnome-terminal: tabbar should not have keyboard focus

[Marius Mikucionis]

Package: gnome-terminal
Version: 2.22.0-1
Severity: minor

I sometimes use mouse to switch between windows, and if I click on 
a tab in gnome-terminal the tab gets keyboard focus, i.e. everything I type
goes to the tab and the terminal itself does not get anything -- this gives
an impression that the terminal is frozen.
One has to look very closely to find out that the terminal cursor is different,
i.e. the keyboard focus is not on the terminal, and then discover that it is 
on the tab.
This is confusing to say the least (tab is not an input field, and one does 
not expect to be able to type anything there), moreover the keystrokes get lost
on the tab and it takes time to grab the mouse again, wigle it to terminal and 
then move hand back to keyboard and retype the lost keystrokes.

In short, my point is that there is nothing to type onto the tab/tabbar 
therefore user should not be encouraged to type anything there and tabs 
should not get/have the keyboard focus in the first place.

Situation may be different for other applications where user has an oportunity
to switch between tabs, but terminal is a keyboard intensive application and
GUI consistent keyboard shortcuts (like TAB key) do not transfer the focus 
back to tabbar, so the left/right arrow functionality on gnome-terminal tabbar 
is lost anyway.

Best regards,
Marius

-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (500, 'stable'), (50, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.24.2-d630 (SMP w/2 CPU cores; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=lt_LT.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=lt_LT.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages gnome-terminal depends on:
ii  gnome-control-center       1:2.22.0-2    utilities to configure the GNOME d
ii  gnome-terminal-data        2.22.0-1      Data files for the GNOME terminal 
ii  libatk1.0-0                1.20.0-1      The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii  libbonobo2-0               2.22.0-1      Bonobo CORBA interfaces library
ii  libc6                      2.7-10        GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libgconf2-4                2.22.0-1      GNOME configuration database syste
ii  libglade2-0                1:2.6.2-1     library to load .glade files at ru
ii  libglib2.0-0               2.16.1-2      The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgnome2-0                2.20.1.1-1    The GNOME 2 library - runtime file
ii  libgnomeui-0               2.20.1.1-1    The GNOME 2 libraries (User Interf
ii  libgtk2.0-0                2.12.9-2      The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  liborbit2                  1:2.14.12-0.1 libraries for ORBit2 - a CORBA ORB
ii  libpango1.0-0              1.20.2-2      Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libstartup-notification0   0.9-1         library for program launch feedbac
ii  libvte9                    1:0.16.13-1   Terminal emulator widget for GTK+ 
ii  libx11-6                   2:1.0.3-7     X11 client-side library
ii  libxrender1                1:0.9.4-1     X Rendering Extension client libra
ii  scrollkeeper               0.3.14-16     A free electronic cataloging syste

Versions of packages gnome-terminal recommends:
ii  yelp                          2.20.0-2   Help browser for GNOME 2

-- no debconf information