Created attachment 9045
Make Drag and Drop Functionality Optional
The attached patch makes the menu item drag and drop functionality optional by adding a new "allow-dnd" property. Default is set to yes so not to interfere with current functionality.
Hi i am the one who posted https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=13404. When I was using XFCE with GTK2, left clicking and then dragging an item in the XFCE application menu did not show the drag-and-drop functionality. So it seems the functionality was added at some point. When I now try to left-click an item in the menu but accidentally drag the mouse a little, my click is 'lost', which makes the menu less usable for me.
Right-clicking a menu-item also has an optional behaviour, so it seems to me it would be consistent to make left-click behaviour optional as well.
In addition I can imagine this to be even more an issue for someone who's mouse movements and clicking are not very precise, such as a user with disability or elderly user.
The panel and xfdesktop (which you refer to with your link) both use the component garcon to display application menus. They share some of the code, but e.g. the right-click behavior is not configurable in the panel's application menu while it is with a hidden(!) property in xfdesktop.
I'm not a huge fan of all those options, especially the hidden ones, because they just tend to add code with very few people benefiting from them (because yeah, hidden options are by definition not very discoverable...)
Maybe some of the other devs see it differently and are willing to push this in. So I'll not object, but I'm also not convinced enough that many people need this to push it myself.
Please re-open and implement this feature. It's a must have. The forums have a LOT of questions from users on how to disable tap n drag.
Tap-n-drag is only available in other platforms only when certain touchpads support it (e.g. some lenovo laptops on windows), but not on others, and not on macs. Only linux has that by default in most DEs, and it's a problem for many users.
For me, this is the reason why I only have xfce installed as a side-DE, and not as my main one. Literally, no other reason (I'm happy with xfce otherwise). But tap-n-drag is just a BIG usability problem for me. Things are getting clicked by accident ALL the time. Not once here and once there, but all the time, every few seconds! It's the most annoying thing ever. Especially since touchpad usability differs between users (some users put their whole finger touching the touchpad, like my husband, or just the tip, like myself).
I have 5 laptops, and some fair better than others in sensitivity (note: changing the sensitivity doesn't help with tap-n-drag). It depends on the touchpad type too, that is.
In fact, the worst experience is with my Thinkpad x280 under Solus Linux, that uses a Synaptics touchpad, that it's so incredibly touchy, that makes it impossible to use the OS at all. Things are getting clicked by accident all the time.
Please, I beg you, implement a GUI option to turn off tan-n-drag. It's the only feature I need from xfce, it's an absolute must-have for me, because it has massive usability implications.