[Pkg-tcltk-devel] Bug#514115: tk: Tk and Tkinter applications broken in Metacity window manager

[Miguel Filgueiras]

Package: tk
Severity: important



Applications implemented in Tcl/Tk and in Python using Tkinter
fail to raise their own toplevel windows when working under the Metacity
window manager. This is the case with gpsman and the practical result
is that part of its functionality is broken (e.g., buttons that do
nothing) and users can be unaware of new toplevels that are created
under existing windows and are not visible by failing to be raised.

You can retrieve small tests in Tcl/Tk and Python from

http://www.ncc.up.pt/gpsman/tmp/testraise.tcl

[run with: wish testraise.tcl]

http://www.ncc.up.pt/gpsman/tmp/testraise.py

[run with: python testraise.py]

These tests create 3 windows each with two buttons for raising the other
two using the standard ways: raise command in Tcl/Tk and tk_raise method 
in Python+Tkinter. To reproduce the bug, run each program under 
Metacity, move the windows so that they partially overlap the others and 
then try to use the buttons. Both programs do nothing at all.
Under other window managers (kwin, sawfish, wmaker, fvwm2) all of them
work as expected.

I submitted a bug report to Bugzilla

http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=567528

but the last answer to it was that I should file a bug with the 
language developers as they "need to provide a way to send 
_NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW (and with a correct timestamp!)" when trying
to "bring this window to user's attention".

As Metacity is used by default in many Debian distributions this
problem is likely to severely affect many applications and therefore
two weeks ago I also submitted a general bug report to Debian

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=512401

that was not answered in any way, apart from an automatic reply.

Best regards,
Miguel Filgueiras


-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.26-1-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.utf-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.utf-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash