Command line arguments in applications and X

["Inge Thorin Eidsaether" <probot@warpmail.net>]

Hi all!

Does anyone have an idea what command line arguments or switches 
to pass to an MDI application, so that, when a running instance 
of the application exists in system memory, a new one isn't spawned?

I believe that kind of arguments to be local to the application, 
and not global in X, but feel free to correct me...

Specifically, I use gFTP to open a remote site, and Bluefish 
to edit web documents. When called from gFTP to edit a document, 
the above desired effect is produced, but that is obviously due to 
the following settings in Bluefish:

Edit > Preferences > Files:
[x] Open files in already running bluefish window

However, focus is not returned to the editor, and when I manually switch 
to it, the new document tab is not brought to the front. I cannot find
any 
window manager settings (sawfish) to control this behavior, although I
think 
that at least the first step has to do with window management. Fixing
this 
would make editing a little smoother.

I use perlpanel as a taskbar, by the way. Maybe that causes the focus
problems?

Now I don't mind Bluefish, but I would like to try other editors for
their 
features (speed, simplicity, etc.), but so far no one opens in the
desired way.


Thanks for any pointers or info!


greetings,
probot