Re: Fw: Select/copy/paste using keyboard in X

[Erik Steffl <steffl@bigfoot.com>]

Joey Hess wrote:
> 
> Hall Stevenson wrote:
> > > Actually, I would like to be able to cut
> > > and paste, with or without mouse, in different
> > > applications running under KDE.  For example,
> > > a line from KWord to a search box at an
> > > internet site up under Netscape.  I can cut
> > > and paste from within KWord, and also from
> > > within Netscape; but not between the  two.
> >
> > That's because Netscape isn't a KDE application. As I said,
> > copy/cut/paste via the keyboard should work with/between Gnome
> > apps. It should work with/between KDE apps (I don't use KDE so
> > I can't say positively). It may or may not work from Gnome to
> > KDE or visa-versa.
> 
> That doesn't sound right. X offers facilities for pasting of at least
> plain text between any X applicatons.

  but there is a concept of a selection and clipboards and probbly some
other stuff, not all applications use the same one. try e.g. staroffice
- when you try to copy/paste between staroffice and xterm you need to
use xcutsel to transfer the selected text from "PRIMARY to 0" or from "0
to PRIMARY".

  What I don't understand is why the GUI programs that do not use what
xcutsel refers to as "PRIMARY" add the ability to work with this, in
addition to whatever they use (so there would be copy, copy to primary,
paste, paste from primary). It wouldn't be a big deal and neverending
problems with X programs and cut/paste would end... perhaps it's not so
simple but the current state is definitely not good...

	erik