Bug 462290

Summary:	Option to choose what happens for a click-and-drag on an inactive window
Product:	[Applications] systemsettings	Reporter:	Luca Carlon <carlon.luca>
Component:	kcm_kwinoptions	Assignee:	KWin default assignee <kwin-bugs-null>
Status:	RESOLVED INTENTIONAL
Severity:	wishlist	CC:	kde, nate, plasma-bugs-null, sdar
Priority:	NOR	Keywords:	usability
Version First Reported In:	5.26.3
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Other
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Luca Carlon 2022-11-26 21:52:37 UTC

SUMMARY
This is a pretty bothering behavior of Plasma. When something is selected in a window that is not on top, that window is brought to the top immediately on the mouse down event. This creates a problem: when something is being selected to be dragged to the window on top, the mouse down event hides the window immediately, making it impossible to drop the selected object. Both Mac OS and Windows do not behave like this, and I think this should be the proper behavior.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Place a dolphin window somewhere and make it pretty large.
2. Open a new dolphin window and make it smaller, overlapping the previous one.
3. Now try to move a file from the first window (which is not on top) into the smaller widow (which is on top).

OBSERVED RESULT
The result is that the smaller window is hidden as soon as the file is selected. This makes it impossible to drop on it.

EXPECTED RESULT
In my opinion, the window in the back should not be moved to the top on mouse down event on selection. The mouse down event should select the file in the back window, but the top window should remain on top. This makes it possible to drop on it.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Linux/KDE Plasma: Wayland
KDE Plasma Version: 5.26.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.99.0
Qt Version: 5.15.7

Comment 1 Nate Graham 2022-11-30 20:26:54 UTC

KWin can't know that the window has something selected, bit it can distinguish a click from a drag. So perhaps we could add a new action for "Left click and drag" in the "Inactive Inner Window Actions" part of the Window Behavior KCM.

Comment 2 David Edmundson 2024-09-20 09:59:57 UTC

> it can distinguish a click from a drag

It can't.

The only thing we could do is focus on mouse up, but I don't intend to support that.