Re: emacs-29 b44a7ff85dc: Allow 'icon-title-format' to have the value t

[Óscar Fuentes]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

>  @defvar icon-title-format
> -This variable specifies how to compute the name for an iconified frame,
> -when you have not explicitly specified the frame title.  This title
> -appears in the icon itself.
> +This variable specifies how to compute the name for an iconified frame
> +when you have not explicitly specified the frame's name via the
> +frame's parameters.  The resulting title appears in the frame's icon
> +itself.  If the value is a string, is should be a mode line construct
> +like that of @code{frame-title-format}.  The value can also be
> +@code{t}, which means to use @code{frame-title-format} instead; this
> +avoids problems with some window managers and desktop environments,
> +where a change in a frame's title (when a frame is iconified) is
> +interpreted as a request to raise the frame and/or give it input
> +focus.  The default is a string identical to the default value of
> +@code{frame-title-format}.
>  @end defvar
>  
>  @defvar multiple-frames
> diff --git a/etc/NEWS b/etc/NEWS
> index 35063678f58..133c07e56df 100644
> --- a/etc/NEWS
> +++ b/etc/NEWS
> @@ -1202,6 +1202,13 @@ the most recently deleted frame.  With a numerical 
> prefix argument
>  between 1 and 16, where 1 is the most recently deleted frame, undelete
>  the corresponding deleted frame.
>  
> ++++
> +*** The variable 'icon-title-format' can now have the value t.
> +That value means to use 'frame-title-format' for iconified frames.
> +This is useful with some window managers and desktop environments
> +which treat changes in frame's title as requests to raise the frame
> +and/or give it input focus.
> +

"Some window managers and desktop environments" (which means KDE) giving
focus to a window because it changed its title is, definitely, a bug
that will be eventually fixed.

A reason for keeping icon-title-format in sync with frame-title-format
is for not having to also set icon-title-format whenever
frame-title-format is set (because most users will want to retain the
title of a frame when it is iconified.)

Then, we have a problem with terminology: "iconify" is a word that is
rarely used since decades ago, the current term is "minimize", so most
new users will not understand what icon-title-format is about from its
documentation.