[PLUG] Trying to change gnome-terminal command behavior

[chris (fool) mccraw]

On Wed, Feb 2, 2011 at 10:33, website reader <website.reader3 at gmail.com> wrote:

> However if I am running on a different desktop and have a background
> program which issues the "gnome-terminal" command in a different
> desktop area, gnome-terminal brings up the active window in my desktop
> area, not the one of the issuing program running the script file.
>
> This is quite annoying, as it grabs the mouse and keyboard entries,
> right in the middle of my work and leads to problems.

i too am a hater of focus thieves.  but then, i use a window manager
that doesn't require a mouse most of the time =) (network-manager is
the bane of my existence on a flaky wireless network i'm forced to
use--it pops up the password dialog repeatedly whenever flakiness
occurs.  grr!)

in the grand tradition of this list in failing to answer the original
query, i have to ask why the background job is using a graphical
terminal at all?  perhaps if you describe the workflow of the
background job we could offer alternative non-gui suggestions, which
would certainly be my preference for a job i am not currently
interacting with.

to address the actual question, as far as i know (and i am no expert,
even after using the x window system for 17 years), there is no way to
address workspaces via xwin geometry which would be the easiest
suggestion:  just tell use the -geometry flag and specify a geometry
on the appropriate workspace.  unfortunately workspaces are a window
manager trick, not an x window server level trick, so i guess that
isn't surprising really--the x server doesn't really know about the
workspace phenomenon (or if it does, doesn't at a geometry level, just
at a "cache the display from these various "viewports"" level).  if
you were having it come up on the wrong *display* (monitor), that's
the right answer.

depending on your window manager (ok, every one i've ever used, which
is probably a dozen, but that leaves dozens i have no experience
with), most support you tying a window to a workspace in the window
manager--but you'll probably have to give it a title and key on that
title, otherwise all gnome-terminals will do what you want the rogue
one to do.  i don't even have gnome-terminal installed to test this
theory, but i would be surprised if it didn't have some way to set the
title on invocation.  that way might not be via command flags, but
perhaps via .Xdefaults/xrdb(1).

so if all that doesn't give you enough rope to figure it out on your
own, we likely need more info to provide you an actual answer.  such
as:  what window manager do you use ('gnome' is probably not enough.
'gnome with metacity' or similar is probably better).

this question probably has a simple answer in the end, but not knowing
it or being able to determine it without the more info requested, i
just said everything relevant to the situation that came to mind.
hope it helped.