Allow Global WindowManager Hotkeys in Renoise

Renoise has a nasty tendency to eat absolutely all keypresses it gets, even global hotkeys like Alt-tab to switch window and Ctrl-Alt-arrow (in GNOME) to switch desktop.
I know the Linux port uses the X API and not a higher level GUI toolkit like GTK that would make it integrate better, but I think it is possible to make Renoise behave properly even so.

Sorry, forgot to mention this problem in the FAQs:
There are so many ways to reconfigure the global (or even window related) shortcuts in Linux, so that’s nearly impossible to handle.

What we could do instead is only blocking the shortcuts that are currently mapped in Renoise (that would free Alt-Tab for example), but that doesn’t solve that the Window Manager Shortcuts and Renoises still conflict. You would end up in a mess of shortcuts that work in the WM and work not in the WM. IMHO right now its more clear whats happening with your shortcuts: They do Renoise stuff.

Same thing happens with mouse modifier mappings (like Alt Dragging for Windows) btw.

If you’re suggesting to make Renoise let X react to key combinations that are not mapped as shortcuts in Renoise, I think that would be a very acceptable solution. Alt-tab and co. are universally expected to switch between programs, and I hardly expect anyone to have mapped those combos to anything in Renoise. Currently I have to use the mouse to switch from Renoise to other programs, and I try to avoid using the mouse as much as possible.

Can we put this in the TODOs for later then, as soon as all the big problems are solved? This unfortunately requires a lot of work on my side…

Sure, it’s not like I’m demanding it be fixed here, just telling you how I’d like it to be, some day :)

I’ve been very impressed with Renoise on Linux, but this has been bothering me as well. Of course it’s not always possible to avoid conflicts with global shortcuts, but the general consensus seems to be that window manager shortcuts take priority. I for one have all my global shortcuts set to Win+…, which isn’t used by applications (on Linux anyway), so I don’t see why Renoise would interfere with these.

On a somewhat related note, I have my window manager configured to use “focus follows mouse”, but not to automatically raise windows when they gain focus. Renoise, however, always forces itself to the front when the cursor enters the window. Not a big issue, but it feels a little obtrusive.

i would add my vote here to at least free those shortcuts not needed by renoise. the rest can be taken over by renoise, as far as i’m concerned. if one is bothered by that, s/he can just free that shortcut in the key preferences and it becomes available to wm.

in any case, i’m extremely impressed by renoise in linux too, and very very happy it exists for linux now. amazing work guys.