How do I prevent applications from stealing focus when they startup on Mac OS X?

Question

Here is a example use case:

1. Open Firefox
2. Put the cursor somewhere where you can type
3. Open something else (eclipse is my current example..)
4. Start typing in Firefox until eclipse steals focus and interrupts what you were typing

How do I prevent applications from stealing focus and interrupting my typing?

Update:

The answers I'm getting seem to suggest that this cannot be done, however it can be done on windows, so I find it hard to imagine it can't be done on osx, that would be a huge usability fail if it were so.

Answer 1

I think you can't :D You can always execute Eclipse in a different desktop though ;)

Answer 2

These qualities are defined in both the application you're launching, and the application currently with focus. See, the Finder from which you launch Eclipse is an application too—if Eclipse didn't steal focus from the Finder, it wouldn't look like the application launch did anything. The default, thus, is to steal focus on the application launch. Maybe there's a Firefox plugin that makes it "autocratic?" You could always add a LSUIElement key to the launched application's Info.plist (inside the app bundle) that takes away that entire application's UI elements, but that might diminish its usefulness to you somewhat.

Executing a new app in a different Space and then switching back has not worked for me; the launched app will only bring you back to that Space once it's done loading.

Really, the foolproof method to keep from getting your focus stolen is just to hold your horses and wait for an app to load once you launch it. Most power users will keep all of the apps they use on a regular basis open in the background and only open something new when they need to divert their full attention to it.