Working with Drag-and-Drop

Abstract

Traditional drag-and-drop has been popular with users since the days of the original Apple Macintosh. But today’s computers and mobile devices have much more sophisticated drag-and-drop behavior. Drag-and-drop is used in file management, transferring data, diagramming, and many other operations where moving an object is more naturally envisioned with a gesture than a key command. Ask developers on the street what drag-and-drop encompasses, and you are likely to get a myriad of different answers depending on their favorite programs and current work assignments. Ask non-technical users about drag-and-drop, and they may stare at you blankly; the feature is now so ingrained into computing that it does not often get called out by name anymore.