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lime/docs/attention.md
gansito05 785c2e8968 Initial Lime window manager
2026-10-02 16:35:17 -05:00

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Application attention

Lime watches ICCCM WM_HINTS UrgencyHint and EWMH _NET_WM_STATE_DEMANDS_ATTENTION. A request adds a quiet, clickable ! N badge to every visible Head bar. There are no flashes, popups, timers, or automatic Activity switches. A window requesting both hints counts once.

Click the badge or use Super-y → w → a for a searchable list across all Activities. The direct command search also offers “Windows needing attention”. Entries show the Activity and the current application title. The ordinary hidden-window picker marks requesting windows with !, and Activity search shows request counts in its details.

Visiting a request

  • A leased window is focused on the Head that already owns it. It is not pulled onto the Head where you opened the picker. This also works for a non-visible member of a monocle stack.
  • A hidden window is shown in its own Activity on the selected Head. If necessary, Lime resumes that Activity's draft, not an arbitrary saved View.
  • Resuming a draft with contested windows still offers explicit partial/take choices. Opening or cancelling that choice does not change either Head. The target and its lease are checked again when you select an option.
  • Visiting a window behind a different fullscreen window exits that fullscreen state so the requested window can actually be seen. Visiting the fullscreen window itself preserves fullscreen.
  • Revealing a hidden window edits the live draft normally; it never rewrites a checkpoint. Merely receiving or displaying attention changes no model state.

Lime acknowledges attention when the selected, visible input target actually has X focus, including focus inside a child widget. Another Head's saved focus, root/background focus, and an open command-palette grab do not count. Clients using WM_TAKE_FOCUS keep their request until they actually answer by taking focus. Closing the menu after a visit then acknowledges the chosen application.

Acknowledgement clears only the urgency flag and the demands-attention atom; other WM_HINTS fields, fullscreen, and unrelated EWMH state remain intact. Applications can cancel either source independently. Destruction and genuine withdrawal remove the client from the list; stale picker entries cannot revive it.

Boundaries

This is application attention, not a desktop notification daemon or an unread-message counter. Applications must publish the relevant X11 hints. A game's fullscreen Head still hides its bar; another visible Head can show the badge, and the menu remains accessible. Disabling the badge or the entire bar does not disable the picker.

Attention is adapter-local, never part of session snapshots. Surviving X windows have their current hints reread when adopted after a WM restart. Dead windows and old alerts are not resurrected from disk. Hidden _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW requests which Lime declines become attention requests; the existing activation policy for already leased clients is otherwise unchanged.

Configuration controls the badge's color, marker, and visibility; see bar appearance. No personal configuration changes are required for the default badge/menu. This addition changes backend structure and ASDF components: use a fresh Lime process to load it, rather than a function-only hot reload. Your running session is not modified by installing the code.

Implementation and tests

src/x11/attention.lisp owns the live source cache and acknowledgement. ICCCM/EWMH adoption and property/client-message handlers feed it; focus effects and normal FocusIn events acknowledge it. Focus queries run only for pending requests, not as an idle poll. Bar/UI code consumes cached queries; the command layer owns visiting and the ordinary Activity/lease transitions.

The owned-Xvfb smoke test is test/x11-attention-smoke.lisp. It covers real ICCCM/EWMH changes and cancellation, both message atom slots, initial hints, NoInput and asynchronous child focus, hidden and inactive Activities, bar clicks, which-key visits, independent Heads, fullscreen preservation, stale selections, and withdrawal/destruction. Server-free tests also cover partial/take collisions, stale choices, checkpoint isolation, and configurable presentation.

Protocol references: ICCCM WM_HINTS and EWMH window state.