Glueing apps to a workspace

The workspaces feature that most linux window managers have to setup virtual screens is a nice feature that I hardly ever use. Maybe it’s because of all the OSs I used for years before training me into a certain way of working but I just don’t seem to find any advantage from them. I tend to run most apps fullscreen and just alt-tab between stuff.

Everytime I do try and use workspaces though, they don’t bloody well work! I want to use them for long running, but infrequently used apps. The problem is that the apps keep doing attention grabbing things, like opening a dialog window, and the window manager (in this case metacity) pops the app back to the workspace I’m currently in. Totally defeating the reason I put the app in another workspace in the first place.

If anyone knows how to glue an app to a particluar workspace in metacity (thats the WM in Gnome if you didn’t know), I’d really appreciate you dropping me a line.