Focus command no longer works in macOS sonoma

[katarinaslama]

System Information

Serenade Version: v2.0.2

OS and Version: macOS 14.3 (and previous Sonoma versions)

Application: focus command: I use ITerm, VSCode, and Chrome

Issue Description

After updating to macOS Sonoma, the focus command no longer works. It will sometimes bring the correct application to the front, but it does not actually focus it. Many times it doesn't work at all. It works the worst with focus VSCode. The launch command can replace focus for Chrome and iTerm, but this does not work for VSCode.

Matt says:
Here’s the underlying library that gets triggered, and likely where the fix needs to be:
https://github.com/serenadeai/driver

There’s a test for focus here that would confirm it’s in this library:
https://github.com/serenadeai/driver/blob/master/test/focus.js

How to Reproduce

Download serenade on macOS Sonoma and try focusing between applications.

[DeFiFoFum]

I'm dealing with the same issue.

[gregnavis]

I'm dealing with the same issue. However, after pulling the driver repo and building it by running yarn, I am able to focus windows via node test/focus.js code.

[qredwoods]

C++ contribution opportunity. See PR#19 in 2021 to fix mac Focus issues. (by @tmacwill, any leads on this new focus issue?) Per reviewed changes, mac.cpp and mac.hpp were modified, may be where fix lies this time.

[dfrench12]

In case it's helpful for reproducibility for when it works and doesn't work, I narrowed it down to the following for me: The focus command only works for me when Serenade itself is the currently focused app. Except for I can focus to Serenade if it's not in focus. i.e. "focus Serenade, focus [other app]" always works for me.

[s-h-a-d-o-w]

It seems to me that focusing problems with serenade (not just mac-specific) are because serenade identifies windows by process name instead of PID. And obviously, multiple windows may have the same process name.

That problem is compounded by different processed names being lumped into one name here:

serenade/client/src/main/execute/system.ts

Line 52 in 6d16a1a

async determineActiveApplication() {

Which is probably used everywhere, like also the revision box code that I'm personally interested in (the wrong window is sometimes focused after closing the revision box):

serenade/client/src/main/windows/revision-box.ts

Line 137 in 6d16a1a

const app = await this.system.determineActiveApplication();

The bad news is that that does require a change in the driver. Adding functions that return the PID of the active window and being able to focus windows based on PID.
The good news is that that's pretty simple to do for anyone with basic C++ knowledge.

But more bad news is:

1. It's not just macOS that's affected. I'm having problems with this on Windows. So, ideally, it should be fixed for all platforms.
2. The driver isn't licensed, so we theoretically are not permitted to fork it (I'm sure it's an oversight, but it might scare off people): Add license file driver#25
3. Once somebody does create a fork, they or somebody else would have to figure out how to point the client to the driver fork and build a new version. (For the latter thing, I have published a guide in my fork though: https://github.com/s-h-a-d-o-w/serenade/blob/master/docs/building.md#client-release )