Sketch does not always have focus on start up

Processing Coding Questions
1

I have a sketch which frequently does not gain focus at start-up. I was able to solve this:

boolean _focusConfirmed= false;

void draw(){
// ensure focus comes to this sketch on start-up
if (millis() < 20000 && !_focusConfirmed ){
if( !focused ) {
println(“not focused”, millis(),“mSec”);
((java.awt.Canvas) surface.getNative()).requestFocus();
}
else {
println(“screen has focus”, millis(),“mSec”);
_focusConfirmed= true;
}
}
//… continue with code

The test for 20000 miilis() allows up to 20 seconds for setup to complete as I am loading some files there. The global _focusConfirmed allows multiple attempts to gain focus until successful.

2 Likes
2

In my code above I am using
((java.awt.Canvas) surface.getNative()).requestFocus();

But java.awt is not recommended. Does anyone have a way to request focus in Processing 3?

3

Please review this post and see if it helps and if still is valid:

Kf

4

That post also uses java.awt which we are advised to not use in the future. My code, using java.awt with Processing 3.0.1 seems to work perfectly. I will load the current 3.5, perhaps the underlying problem of sketch starting without focus will go away.

5

thank you for sharing,
your code works fine also with processing 3.5.3
and can improve ( the start for ) many keyboard heavy games.
i also try different renderers P2D, P3D ( under win 10 )

please could you link to that info?

give me some time to check about P 4.0 beta
ok same improvement
( but some not related warnings at P3D )
used code mod:

boolean _focusConfirmed = false; //__ if false force set focus

void setup() {
  size(200,200); //,P3D);
}

void draw() {
  check_focus();
}

void keyPressed() {
  println("key "+key);
}

void check_focus() {
  if ( !_focusConfirmed ) { //&& millis() < 20000 ) {
    if ( !focused ) ((java.awt.Canvas) surface.getNative()).requestFocus();
    else            _focusConfirmed= true;
    println("focus_check: time ", millis(), "ms");
  }
}


// https://discourse.processing.org/t/sketch-does-not-always-have-focus-on-start-up/16834
// @rhole ( Richard L Hole )

//__ processing sketch need to have FOCUS to detect a key press
//__ so usually we click with mouse on canvas after start, to allow keyboard
//__ as like on WIN10 30% at start there is NO focus
//__ but this code seems to work very good
6

This link discusses changes in Processing 3:

Library authors, now is the time to reduce your reliance on AWT! In 3.0, we’ve moved away from AWT in a big way (here’s why). Any library features that require AWT should be treated with suspicion. Modes and Tools can still use AWT, but the OpenGL renderers ( P2D and P3D ) and the upcoming FX2D renderer don’t use AWT at all.

Quoting the last paragraph:

  • This is one reason we built the processing.event classes in 2.x, and have been removing spurious AWT usage from the core API, documentation, and examples.) It’s now been a couple years since we made those changes.
  • The other reason is that we can’t rely on AWT features when targeting JavaScript or Android, so it was encouraging bad habits.

By the way, I am new to this forum. How did you paste your code in a code-block?

1 Like
7

thanks,
not worry that too much,
esp. as you still 2 rev behind…

now as i see that i would recommend doing test for the different renderers,
well, i did it little bit ( and only win 10 )

and to your original question?
i also not know any better way to do it.

please format your code posting by pasting it into the

</> code button

of the editor header menu ( context name: Preformatted text )
it looks like
```
type or paste code here
```

also can use the ``` manually above and below your code.

thank you.