Stops working when Octave-app runs

[KejPi]

When Octave-app runs Alt-Tab stops working - shortcut does nothing, clicking on Alt-Tab icon shows busy cursor. It resumes when Octave application is closed.
This problem is in version 3.x.x (tested latest 3.1.3 and also 3.0.5). I had to downgrade to 2.3.4 that works.

[lwouis]

I was able to reproduce the issue with Octave 4.4.1. I see that the AXObserverAddNotification calls fail and return kAXErrorCannotComplete. This explains why the Octave window is not shown in AltTab, but not why AltTab stops responding quickly and behaves strangely.

[lwouis]

Octave.app is pretty Frankenstein'y. You can tell it's a port and not a native mac app. In Activity Monitor, it looks like this:

From a technical perspective, one of these processes bundle ID "org.octave-app.Octave" and never answers the AXObserverAddNotification call. I will blacklist it for now. The other process octave-gui with bundle ID nil answers the call correctly, and we can get Octave.app's windows from it.

Looking into this issue outline a bug in AltTab's AXObserverAddNotification retry logic. I'll try to fix it. It's pretty complex as it involves multi-threading.

I'll deliver a fix that fixes this bug, but also blacklists the bogus "org.octave-app.Octave" process that we know to never respond. I also opened a ticket on Octave.app repo so they can fix their issue 👍

[lwouis]

I just released v3.2.1 which should fix this issue. I suggest updating to it using the built-in update button:

You can also download it manually here.

Let me know if that fixes your issue! 👍

[KejPi]

I can confirm it works as expected now. Thank you for this great application!