I would love to see the feature added whereby roxterm windows are faded when
they lose focus. rxvt-unicode has this. It could be implemented so that either
the inactive window darkens by a (user-configurable) amount, or so that the
inactive window becomes more transparent by a (user-configurable) amount,
though I suppose the latter would only work with compositing window managers.
Could this feature be considered?

I'm going to reject the idea for 3 reasons:

1. Option bloat. I'd probably have to duplicate all the options from the Background section so there's an additional set for unfocused windows. The code to deal with the 2 states would also add complication.
   

2. I don't really support the idea of unfocused windows being less visible than a focused one. I often refer to text in one window while typing into another.
   

3. If you do like the idea, why not apply it to all applications? Then it should be the window manager's responsibility. I'm pretty sure compiz can do this.

realh wrote:

I don't really support the idea of unfocused windows being less visible than
a focused one.

I never really did see the appeal in windows with semi-transparent
backgrounds, other than as something to make cool looking screen shots. If
you're actually using your desktop to do work, the last thing you want to do
is make it busier looking by layering text on top of text or other patterns.

But I could see some value in slightly dimming inactive windows, such that
their contents are still quite legible, yet made to be less distracting from
the window you are concentrating on.

...why not apply it to all applications? Then it should be the window
manager's responsibility.

I agree. Seems silly to implement on a per-application basis.

However, you'd need settings to exclude certain windows from the effect. For
example, if you were playing a video in the corner of your screen while
working on another window, you wouldn't want the video to be dimmed.

-Tom

But I could see some value in slightly dimming inactive windows, such that
their contents are

still quite legible, yet made to be less distracting from the window you are
concentrating on.

True, but again this is something the window manager can help with. This
thread prompted me to change my theme from Shiki to Glossy so that there's a
big contrast between the title bars of active and inactive windows. Shiki
looks nicer but Glossy is more practical.

However, you'd need settings to exclude certain windows from the effect. For
example, if

you were playing a video in the corner of your screen while working on
another window,

you wouldn't want the video to be dimmed.

Yes. I'm not sure how you configure compiz to do this (maybe in Opacity,
Brightness and Saturation but I don't know how you distinguish between focused
and unfocused windows) but many of its options can be configured with
overrides for certain window roles, ids, classes etc.