Ubuntu and the clipboard

[cl at isbd.net]

On Wed, Sep 27, 2006 at 09:34:47PM -0700, Simon wrote:
> I switched to Ubuntu (and Linux as a whole) about 7-8 months ago, and
> needless to say, I'll never go back (you know what place I'm talking
> about).
> 
> However, one thing has irritated me from the first day. It seemed as if
> many times, when I copied something (using ctrl+c) and then attempted to
> paste it, the clipboard would be empty. Of course I can slip every now
> and then and hit the wrong combination, but what I was used to before
> Ubuntu was probably a 99% success rate, whereas now, I seemed to lose
> the data probably two times out of three.
> 
I personally find the whole CTRL/C and CTRL/V way of cutting and
pasting incredibly clumsy.  It's a Windows invention anyway and thus
is (to my mind) cobbled on top of the correct Unix/Linux way of doing
things.

In the 'normal' Unix/Linux way of doing things:-

    Selected text (i.e. text marked by dragging with button 1) is
    automatically put in the buffer.

    You then paste the text by pressing the 'middle' button (often
    emulated by pressing both buttons if you only have two).

This avoids all keyboard interaction at all and (at least to my mind)
is much more logical.  Why involve the keyboard at all?  You *have* to
use the mouse to select the text and probably also to say where it is
to be pasted so involving the keyboard inevitably means more hand
movement is required than if only the mouse is used.

-- 
Chris Green (chris at halon.org.uk)