"Show with selection" doesn't work

[Juan Simón]

kupfer git version (HEAD is now at e853b3e) compiled now.
When I press the combination to "Show with selection", kupfer opens the window but it doesn't show the selected text.
I test it selecting text in terminal, browser, etc... nothing works.

[X (u78qir8a9-deactivatedaccount)]

The 'Selected Text' object is moving to the 'Clipboard' plugin in the development version (at user request). You can enable the clipboard plugin but set the number of saved clipboards to 0 if you want.

[Juan Simón (simonbcn)]

I think this is incongruent. The clipboard is a place where I save things intentionally, not just selecting a fraction of text.
IMHO, Kupfer recent changes are turning it into an application with an abnormal condition, hard to understand.

[Juan Simón (simonbcn)]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability is necessary to create a good application.
To use "Show with selection" I have to activate a plugin whose name and role have nothing to do with what I want really use.

[X (u78qir8a9-deactivatedaccount)]

It's the development version, it's not released yet. We will definitely make it more clear (by documentation or in the plugin information). Also, the selection is another type of clipboard (in X).

Usability feedback is very welcome, but don't judge Kupfer's development versions as anything else as a work in progress.

[X (u78qir8a9-deactivatedaccount)]

Also, the clipboard plugin is active by default.

[Juan Simón (simonbcn)]

And? I disabled this plugin because I didn't need it. Well, I thought that I didn't need it.
It is your application and you can do whatever you want, but each time it is more difficult to me to understand it and use it. I don't know if I'm the only one but I think the logic fails in certain decisions.

[Juan Simón (simonbcn)]

the selection is another type of clipboard (in X). Where have you read this? o_O
Clipboard is an space where are stored objects that I intentionally have copied, only that.

[X (u78qir8a9-deactivatedaccount)]

> It is your application and you can do whatever you want, but each time it is more difficult to me to understand it and use it. I don't know if I'm the only one but I think the logic fails in certain decisions.

You're using the development version, this is not a released version.

[David Schneider (dnschneid)]

Actually, in X the clipboard is another type of selection, not the other way around, but it's really just an issue of semantics.

More importantly, Simon does have a point (although it is phrased a bit harshly), and we could always spend some more effort thinking of better ways to arrange the UI.

The Selected Text mechanism was actually moved into the Clipboard plugin at my request, as it has performance implications (selections are always realized and copied into Kupfer whether you'll be using them or not, which can especially suck if the program is run remotely) and interacts badly with some programs (bug 762607), and the user had no means of disabling it due to it being in the "core" plugin. The Clipboard plugin duplicated a bunch of its code, so it seemed natural from a development standpoint to move it in there; but as you said, it is strange for the user to enable a "Clipboard" plugin to have access to the current selection, especially since Kupfer gives no feedback as to why it is not working.

This also highlights a more general issue with the keyboard shortcut preferences pane--the shortcut is listed there whether the code backing it is active or not. I suggest one of two things:
1. Hide the shortcut entry entirely if the backing code isn't active. This avoids confusion, but impedes the user from discovering cool features.
2. When the user sets a shortcut's key config, and when they try to use it notify them if a requisite plugin is not enabled, and maybe offer to enable it or show the plugin config screen. One cool thing would be to generate and select an object in the kupfer window that is "Activate X Plugin" (and show a notification saying that the plugin isn't active for the keyboard shortcut), although that might require the "Kupfer Plugins" plugin to be enabled, which defeats the purpose.

As for selection itself, I see two options:
1. Split the selected text plugin into its own "Selected Text" plugin. We should probably do one of the two above if the plugin isn't active, although at least this is more sensible.
2. Keep it in Clipboard. This is only acceptable if one of the two above is done as well.

Thoughts?

[Juan Simón (simonbcn)]

I think the solution is much more simply: Allow undefine the shortcut for "Show with selection". If this shortcut is undefined, "Show with selection" is disabled. It's the most logical and straightforward.