Subject: bug#72003: 29.3; Drag and drop in Emacs 29 on macOS

From: Giah De Barag <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 2024 14:42:21 -0400

On Jul 11, 2024, at 10:23, Robert Pluim <[email-masked]> wrote:

>>>>>> On Thu, 11 Jul 2024 09:08:03 -0400, Giah de Barag <[email-masked]> said:
> 
>    Giah> On Jul 9, 2024, at 02:29, Po Lu <[email-masked]> wrote:
>>> Giah de Barag <[email-masked]> writes:
>>> 
>>>> * SUMMARY
>>>> 
>>>> Drag and drop does not work in Emacs version 29 on macOS.
>>>> 
>>>> * DESCRIPTION
>>>> 
>>>> - Drag and drop does NOT work on Emacs 29 on macOS. (Drag
>>>> and drop DOES work in Emacs < 28. Upgrading to v29 makes
>>>> drag and drop stop working.)
>>>> 
>>>> - If we do M-x describe-key then drag and drop a file on the
>>>> text area of the window, we get -- nothing -- in Emacs 29
>>> 
>>> Since I cannot reproduce this in GNUstep on Emacs 30, this has either
>>> been dealt with in the release branch, or is specific to Mac OS
> 
>    Giah> Who maintains the macOS-specific code?
> 
> Drag and drop works fine for me on macOS with Emacs 29.3 and
> master. Is this one of those 'apps need permission to access folders'
> security things that pops up every once in a while on macOS?
> 
> Robert
> --

Thank you for that suggestion. However, there is no error message. It just silently does not work. Search for the string "NOTHING HAPPENS" in my bug report. Also note that rolling back to Emacs 28 or going to a more recent macOS makes drag and drop work.

What other reasons could we think of, to explain why Emacs 29 drag and drop does not work in macOS 12, an OS that is only three years old, still supported and updated, and still widely used?

macOS 12 | Emacs 28 | works
macOS 12 | Emacs 29 | does not work
macOS 14 | Emacs 28 | works
macOS 14 | Emacs 29 | works