Ubuntu and the clipboard

[cl at isbd.net]

On Thu, Sep 28, 2006 at 10:18:49AM -0300, Derek Broughton wrote:
> cl at isbd.net wrote:
> 
> > 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? 
> 
> Because most of us are actually _using_ the keyboard when working with text,
> so moving to the mouse is actually an _extra_ step, not a simplification. 
> Mouses are for people who can't type. :-)
> 
> > You *have* to 
> > use the mouse to select the text and probably also to say where it is
> 
> No I don't - if I'm text editing, I will almost certainly use the cursor
> keys to select the text, and to move the insertion point.  Even if I'm
> selecting text from a different window from the one I'm inserting it to,
> I'll use the keyboard to change windows.  The place where this usually
> falls down is when I want to select the text from a browser, and have to
> use the mouse.
> 
Yes, OK, horses for courses.  If I'm editing with my vi clone then
selecting with the keyboard is the way I'd go too, and I'd paste using
a keyboard command.

On the other hand for cases where you have to select the text with the
mouse then pasting it with the mouse makes sense.

> > to be pasted so involving the keyboard inevitably means more hand
> > movement is required than if only the mouse is used.
> 
> In any case, the ctrl-C/ctrl-V buffer is distinct from the buffer used for
> copying selected text (at least in klipper - I believe it's the same in
> gnome), in some way I've never really understood, and I frequently make use
> of both.

The different buffers used by different cut/pastes are just there to
confuse us I think!  :-)

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