Reliably refocus the terminal after a channel switch (#35) #41

Merged

pedromcaraujo merged 1 commit from fix/terminal-focus into main

2026-09-02 18:09:30 +01:00

pedromcaraujo commented

2026-09-02 16:02:29 +01:00

Owner

Follow-up to #35 / #36 — the earlier fix (focusGen + a wider retry window)
still left focus off the shell for one class of device, because two independent
causes were in play:

focusTerm() bailed on IS_TOUCH. IS_TOUCH is a device capability
(maxTouchPoints > 0 / pointer: coarse), so it's true for touchscreen
laptops, 2-in-1s and Chromebooks driven with a keyboard — and on those the
focus code never ran at all. Now gated on a live input-modality flag
(lastInputWasTouch): only a genuine finger tap suppresses auto-focus (which
is what pops the Android soft keyboard); any keyboard/mouse/stylus input
focuses the shell, even on touch-capable hardware. suppressTermKeyboard is
gated on the same flag, keeping the two paths mutually exclusive.
The "focus stuck" check could pass falsely. It read only
frame.contentDocument.activeElement === ta, which can be true inside the
iframe while keystrokes still land on the top document. Now requires both
the top document to hold the iframe and the iframe to hold its textarea
before it stops retrying.

Retained from #36: the focusGen counter that supersedes the earlier in-flight
attempt from closePalette. The wide fixed-schedule retry is replaced by a
self-scheduling poll (~3 s, guarded by focusGen) that also bails if the user
has meanwhile focused another launcher control.

Verify: on a desktop/keyboard device, switch channels from the palette
(Alt+K) and via the sidebar; the shell should take focus without a click. On a
phone, the soft keyboard should still stay down on switch.

Follow-up to #35 / #36 — the earlier fix (`focusGen` + a wider retry window) still left focus off the shell for one class of device, because two independent causes were in play: 1. **`focusTerm()` bailed on `IS_TOUCH`.** `IS_TOUCH` is a device *capability* (`maxTouchPoints > 0` / `pointer: coarse`), so it's true for touchscreen laptops, 2-in-1s and Chromebooks driven with a keyboard — and on those the focus code never ran at all. Now gated on a live input-modality flag (`lastInputWasTouch`): only a genuine finger tap suppresses auto-focus (which is what pops the Android soft keyboard); any keyboard/mouse/stylus input focuses the shell, even on touch-capable hardware. `suppressTermKeyboard` is gated on the same flag, keeping the two paths mutually exclusive. 2. **The "focus stuck" check could pass falsely.** It read only `frame.contentDocument.activeElement === ta`, which can be true inside the iframe while keystrokes still land on the top document. Now requires *both* the top document to hold the iframe *and* the iframe to hold its textarea before it stops retrying. Retained from #36: the `focusGen` counter that supersedes the earlier in-flight attempt from `closePalette`. The wide fixed-schedule retry is replaced by a self-scheduling poll (~3 s, guarded by `focusGen`) that also bails if the user has meanwhile focused another launcher control. **Verify:** on a desktop/keyboard device, switch channels from the palette (Alt+K) and via the sidebar; the shell should take focus without a click. On a phone, the soft keyboard should still stay down on switch.

pedromcaraujo added 1 commit

2026-09-02 16:02:29 +01:00

Reliably refocus the terminal after a channel switch (#35 )

CI / check (pull_request) Successful in 22s

Details

375aab7dfd

Two independent causes left focus off the shell after a palette channel
switch, so a keyboard user had to click the terminal to type.

- focusTerm() bailed on IS_TOUCH, a device *capability* that is true for
  touchscreen laptops, 2-in-1s and Chromebooks driven with a keyboard.
  On those it never focused the terminal at all. Gate on the live input
  modality (lastInputWasTouch) instead: only a genuine finger tap
  suppresses auto-focus (which is what pops the Android soft keyboard);
  any keyboard/mouse/stylus input focuses the shell, even on
  touch-capable hardware. suppressTermKeyboard is gated on the same flag,
  keeping the two paths mutually exclusive.

- The retry window ([0,60,200,500]ms) was too short: a fresh channel load
  rebuilds xterm's hidden textarea only after the ttyd bundle boots and
  the websocket reconnects, often past 500ms, so every tick fired before
  the textarea existed and it gave up. Poll ~3s until it appears (matching
  applyTermThemeWhenReady), and require both the top document to hold the
  iframe *and* the iframe to hold its textarea before declaring focus
  stuck — the inner-only check was a false positive.

pedromcaraujo merged commit 5e98171476 into main

2026-09-02 18:09:30 +01:00

pedromcaraujo deleted branch fix/terminal-focus

2026-09-02 18:09:30 +01:00

pedromcaraujo referenced this pull request from a commit

2026-09-02 18:09:31 +01:00

Reliably refocus the terminal after a channel switch (#35) (#41)