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10.5: Disable Space switching on Command-Tab in 10.5.2
Authored by: bblfish on Feb 14, '08 02:01:10AM
This does help somewhat resolve the problem I blogged about in the popular post Why Apple Spaces is Broken". But it makes ⌘-tab useless. The following steps will help make this clear.

Before applying the above command, try this:
  1. login to a clean workspace
  2. in space 1 open Safari
    • create a new Safari window with ⌘N
    • Press F8 and move that window to Space 2
    • Move to space 2
  3. in Space 2 start up the Terminal program
    • create a second Shell with ⌘N
    • Move the second Shell to Space 1
  4. Now use ⌘-tab to switch between a Safari instance and a shell instance. Sometimes you will get the Shell or Safari instance on the same desktop, sometimes it will switch to another desktop. You may have to switch between desktops to see this. What this shows is clearly that the behavior is unpredictable.
  5. Use F10 to Switch between the Safari and the shell on the same desktop. Here clearly you should always remain on the same desktop, since you are given a choice of a window on that desktop. I find that from time to time, or regulary, but not always predictably, I get swooshed over to the other desktop.
  6. Apply the hint by writing the following in a shell: $ defaults write com.apple.dock workspaces-auto-swoosh -bool NO and killall Dock
Now ⌘tab never forces one to change desktop. At least we have consistency. But it does not necessarily bring the window of the application you have switched to to the foreground. So while typing this in Safari I typed ⌘tab and though the shell application was selected it did not appear in the foreground. Again this behavior is not consistent. You may have to switch spaces to get it. Right now it does suddenly switch the terminal to the foreground, but when I then ⌘tab I no longer get Safari in the foreground.

F10 does now do the right thing. It allows you to get the window you want to the foreground and it does not switch you to a different workspace.

[robg adds: I edited this comment only for formatting and layout, not content -- no words or punctuation were changed. (Well, I fixed one typo!).]

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