Inconsistent cut-and-paste behaviour
| Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| xorg-server (Ubuntu) |
Invalid
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned | ||
Bug Description
Cut-and-paste behaviour on linux has deteriorated during the last decade or so and is now very inconsistent. This applies to a number of applications, so I'm not sure which package to report it against.
There are two main ways to put text in the cut-and-
The X-windows way is to mark text with the left mouse button (by holding and scrolling, letters or lines at a time or by double-clicking for a word or triple-clicking for a whole line). Marking text automagically copies it into the buffer - a Good Thing(TM).
Pasting is done using the middle mouse button or by using SHIFT+Insert, a sensible use of the Insert key.
The Microsoft way is to mark first and then have to use CTRL+c (used for completely different things in a *nix shell) to copy to the buffer. Pasting is done with CTRL+v. This is at best inferior to the X-windows way. IMNSHO it's broken by design.
In the good old days things were done the X-windows way and everything worked just fine. Then applications which use the Microsoft way were ported to linux and introduced a inconsistency. New OSS developers who were used to Windows and didn't know better also developed applications using the Microsofts paradigm.
Now there are (at least) two cut-and-paste buffers in "linux", and they're not synchronized.
Affected applications include
openoffice.org
opera (ok, it's not OSS)
Klipper (KDE clipboard tool, which even has a preference "Synchronize contents of the clipboard and the selection" but which doesn't always seem to fix this issue but illustrates it very well)
most xterm-clones
X-chat (broken marking of text, you have to press CTRL+c whilst holding the mouse button down, which is more broken than most)
I think that there are two goups of applications, I'm not sure how to fix the bug. Maybe just synchronizing the "CTRL+c"-buffer with X's buffer would fix it. If the way klipper fixes it is the right thing to do then it should at least be enabled by default (I think it isn't). Since klipper is KDE Gnome may have similar problems.
--
James
For american lawyers:
All trademarks are the property of their owners. By the definition of "property" and "owner". Duh.
| Simon Law (sfllaw) wrote | #1 |
| Changed in xorg-server: | |
| status: | Confirmed → Rejected |
| James Baum (james-baum) wrote | #2 |
| Fred (eldmannen+launchpad) wrote | #3 |
| FMaz (fmaz008) wrote | #4 |
Thank you for your report.
This behaviour has always been the case and is a design feature of X11.
You are describing SELECTION and PRIMARY buffers. They were separate
and have semantics that are both supported by major X applications. It
is unlikely that this will change in the near future, even though more and
more applications prefer exposing the PRIMARY buffer in their menu
systems.