Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 174197
gnome-ssh-askpass looks malformed and is stealing focus in an odd way
Last modified: 2007-11-30 17:11:17 EST
Description of problem: openssh-askpass-4.2p1-9 1)the password entry dialog window as a very small text entry area and a large status bar next to it. Is this intentional? Screenshot of window attached. 2)While the password dialog is open I can't interact with other applications correctly. For example I can focus gnome-terminal, but I can't open any menus and I can't enter text into the terminal. Xchat is the same. But firefox I can focus and interact with menus without a problem, but the askpass dialog steals any text entry.
Created attachment 121493 [details] Screenshot of gnome-ssh-askpass window showing odd layout
1) That's intentional. The password entry is small so the number of password character's is obscured. The progres bar provides the feedback for keypresses. 2) The keyboard grab is intentional as well so no other X client is eavesdropping on the keys pressed. You can use GNOME_SSH_ASKPASS_GRAB_POINTER=1 to grab mouse pointer as well so there is no interaction with other windows possible at all. It would be more consistent behaviour however it would prevent you from copy+paste passwords from other windows if you didn't do the copy before the dialog appears.
1) I see the point. But how the UI was implemented feels unnerving it quite frankly looks broken to my untrained eye. I can't pinpoint it, it just feels out of proportion. I guess because the text box no longer registered instantly as a text box since I'm so use to seeing text boxes being more rectangular than square. At first glance it looks like a checkbox almost. 1a)reorganize the dialog a little and provide visible text to indicated that the textbox is a textbox. Enter password: [ ] [progress bar] 1b) Any chance that a clear password button could be added? 2) Can this be made so that the dialog keeps focus as well by default? What felt odd was the fact that I could go to other windows and interact with the window in an half-ass sort of way. Firefox let me interact with its menus for example..but no text entry. I could click on gnome-terminal's menu and the menu was blank. It would be much cleaner experience if the dialog grab not only text entry but all focus so I couldn't interact with other windows at all. The way it works now already breaks some important UI consistency with regard to copy and paste. I can't use the menu entries in gnome-terminal to get to the copy command. 2a)add paste button or context menu with paste/clear? 2b)anyway the dialog could provide a tool tip or some other notice telling you that you have entered a protected state?