I posted this in the software forum but got nothin...dunno if anyone here can help but I'd appreciate it...

I'm trying out Window Maker on my laptop (running Sarge) and I'm wondering if there is a way to make Alt-Tab work the way it does in Windows (or KDE for that matter). Right now, it just seems to make the next window active, but if that window is behind another one...well, I get an "active" window that's hidden behind an "inactive" window, which really doesn't do me a goddamn bit of good

Is there a way that it will make the next window active AND bring it to the front so I can actually see it and use it?

Thanks if anyone can help or point me in the right direction...

oi, i think i might have found the answer to my question (though i don't have my computer to test it)

http://www.windowmaker.org/faq-chapter3.html#76

don't you hate it when you spend a bunch of time looking for an answer, can't find it, go and ask people...and then 5 minutes later find the answer by yourself

though I wonder why this wasnt enabled by default like it says it should be...is the Window Maker version in Sarge an old one or something?

The feature you're asking about should be in the version of Window Maker (0.80.2) that is in Debian Sarge. You just need to switch it on in WPrefs.app. But there's also a newer (0.91) version of Window Maker that is now in Debian Sid/Unstable and it has an enhanced Alt-Tab feature.

See http://www.windowmaker.org/index.html and look under "Window Maker 0.91.0 released". You'll see that the new Window Maker 0.91 has now an "Alt-Tab switching panel". When you hit Alt-Tab, a panel appears showing all open apps, just like in Windows. There's also a screenshot that shows the switching panel in action.

cool...but then i wouldn't have the debian support of WM

dunno, what do people think? is it worth it to use the older version that you can support with apt-get, or download the newest version and get the latest features?

As I said, the latest version of Window Maker (0.91) is now in Debian Sid/Unstable. But you don't necessarily have to leave Sarge/Testing if you want Window Maker 0.91. Edit your /etc/apt/sources.list changing "testing" to "unstable". Then do "apt-get update" and "apt-get upgrade wmaker". Then edit /etc/apt/sources.list again, changing "unstable" back to "testing". Then do "apt-get update", and you're safely back in Sarge -- with the latest Window Maker.

If this breaks other packages, you can either upgrade those packages too from Unstable or you can do "apt-get --purge remove wmaker" to get rid of the Unstable version of Window Maker and then reinstall the Sarge version. I don't think that Window Maker has many dependencies, so the upgrade should be relatively safe. If you login using WDM, you may need to upgrade that with Window Maker.

ahh i forgot about that...thanks

i actually log in from the command line...i don't boot into X right away, though i'm thinking i might as well do that at this point...i guess that's another question at another time though