I've found a couple posts on this, though they're unsanswered. I'm just really curious if this is expected or unexpected behaviour. I can't reproduce it, and when it does happen, I never think to check the log to see what other keys I might've inadvertently pressed (I'll do my best to remember for next time). So I have no idea what might be happening. I thought I remembered coming across a post that said you could use ⌘-Tab to activate the application switcher and then hit another key that would allow you to release ⌘ entirely and have the switcher remain on the screen, allowing you to navigate it with the arrow keys and selecting with return—but I cannot find that post now.
[edit] As luck would have it, it just happened randomly. I checked the log, but nothing is different from usual.
Why is this post a lightning rod for spam replies? This is so bizarre...
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Probably because "application switcher" is a popular search term? That'd be my guess, anyway.
-rob.
Hm. All things considered, should I probably delete this post then? Since it doesn't seem to have an answer, that is.
Sorry, I thought I'd posted this but I guess the spam interrupted it and I never went back to it:
I have a theory that's most certainly wrong, but it's all I got :).
We have an app that lets users use Command-Tab, and sometimes it gets overpowered by the default Command-Tab application switcher. This can happen when the CPU is very busy, or for some other reason, our app gets a lower priority than the system request. This happens because Command-Tab is a special key combo, and it can't be trapped by the usual key trapping mechanism.
Using the alternative mechanism, for whatever reason, if things get a bit wonky, the request isn't seen before the OS grabs Command-Tab and does its thing. Then (finally) our app gets the request, and does its own thing with Command-Tab.
Perhaps what you're seeing is related to that issue? If you set it to use Option-Tab, does it behave more reliably?
I know, weak, but it's all I got.
-rob.
Interesting idea. I haven't tried an alternate key combo, though I could certainly test it out. I suppose the lack of anything in the log and the fact that this seems to have been a mystery for a while should've been fairly clear that the behaviour is unexepected, perhaps even inexplicable, but there's something about it that just feels like it might've been on purpose (I don't know if that makes any sense), which is why I asked again myself.
If it stays on the screen, that likely means that something got lost with the keyboard modifier events. So my guess would be some other software that is mucking with the event queue or the low level keyboard stuff. It is extremely difficult to get that stuff perfectly correct and any slight errors can cause events to get lost and lead to cases like this.
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