[Feature Request] Permanent input field focus

[epitron]

Hey guys!

Love the Glowing Bear! It kicks qweechat's butt!

I just wanted to ask for a little tweak that would help Glowing Bear behave more like a regular desktop IRC client, or a terminal. When you click on a terminal or a desktop IRC client, the keyboard focus always stays on the input field, so you can just start typing. In Glowing Bear, however, if you click anything besides the input field, the keyboard focus goes there, meaning you have to re-click on the input field to be able to start typing.

This is problematic, since I usually leave the IRC window partially-visible next to another window, and click it to bring it back to the foreground. I'm used to just clicking anywhere on the window, and being able to type.

I have a feeling there are others like me. :)

Thanks for your time!

[lorenzhs]

On desktop, this makes a lot of sense (and iirc, Glowing Bear used to behave like this). However, it is problematic on mobile -- you do not want the soft keyboard to be open unless you're typing. This is why we removed it. We should come up with a solution that a) makes the input field autofocus on desktop b) doesn't on mobile

[lorenzhs]

Oh by the way, you can press tab on the Desktop to focus the input bar (unless you're in another input field, like the search thingy)

[peterjcole]

I'd also like to see this implemented. Because I'm used to a normal IRC client, I often find myself typing not into the text box after focusing on the glowing-bear window by alt-tab or clicking somewhere in the chat rather than the box itself. This is quite frustrating.

[kindfulkirby]

Isn't there some way to detect whether the user is on mobile or desktop and activate this feature only on desktop?

Thanks for telling me about pressing tab though I have to press it twice for some reason. Still, much better than clicking the input bar with my mouse!

[lorenzhs]

@ttheuer kind of, but our current method is based on viewport width which is a poor proxy (doesn't work well for landscape tablets, for example). Better mobile detection is something we should fix, and then we could fix this as well.

On the other hand permanent focus would be nice on a tablet with a physical keyboard connected. Don't think we can detect that though. This stuff gets complicated fast :(

[kindfulkirby]

Maybe a tiny checkbox next to the input bar with a keyboard icon next to it? It adds clutter, though...

[lorenzhs]

Nope no checkboxes, certainly not in the primary UI. Without a label it's also completely unclear what it does. Fixing mobile detection is a much better solution. Why make it complicated if we can just do the right thing and make it work out of the box? :)

[lorenzhs]

Btw @ttheuer are you going to GPN this year? I'll probably be working on GB at least some of the time.

[kindfulkirby]

@lorenzhs Yeah, absolutely, doing it right is best.

lol Github is a village! I'm afraid I'm moving away in a few weeks, and I never felt comfortable in crowds, anyway.

[lorenzhs]

Ah no worries :) Best of luck with the move!