Ubuntu and the clipboard

[Scott]

", "cl at isbd.net spake thusy);:

> 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.

Actually it was around before Windows.  It was on the Mac beforehand..
> 
> 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).

I find that "middle button" stuff rather clumsy myself.  And worse, when
I select text for other purposes I end up putting it in the clipboard
when I didn't want it there.

> 
> 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.

Your logic does make sense, but I've just never been comfortable with a
lot of the "features" in X.

Long before I ever used X, I tried out the "X-Mouse" tweak in Winidows
95 (and later) which Mimics X-Window mouse behavior.   I dumped it in a
few days. I tried using those features again later on in Linux and still
didn't like them. :-)

That window-focus-follows-mouse stuff will drive one nuts in a matter of
minutes.