Re: Cut-Copy/Paste behavior

On Tue, 9 Sep 2003, Lawrence MacIntyre wrote:
> I use Evolution for email.  If I have two compose windows open, and I
> select text in one with Control-C, then highlight text in the other with
> the mouse, and then paste it with Control-V, it replaces the selected
> text (note that you MUST use Control-V here, if you use the middle
> button, it simply inserts the text instead of replacing the selected
> text).

Using the middle mouse button has more differences than just inserting the
text instead of replacing it.

1) In Evolution, type "aaaaaaaaabbbbbbbbb".
2) Highlight some a's and use ^C or use "copy" from the menu.
3) Highlight some b's and left-click on the mouse.  This unhighlights the
text and copies it into the cut buffer.
4) Move the cursor to the end of the line.

At this point, if you press ^V or use "paste" from the menu you insert a's,
but if you middle-click you insert b's.  This is strange.

Now try it in this order:
1) In Evolution, type "aaaaaaaaabbbbbbbbb".
2) Highlight some b's and left-click on the mouse.  This unhighlights the
text and copies it into the cut buffer.
3) Highlight some a's and use ^C or use "copy" from the menu.
4) Move the cursor to the end of the line.

At this point, both ^V and middle-click do the same thing.

Furthermore, this example involves no currently highlighted text.  When you
add that into the mix it becomes apparent that Linux is using three buffers:

Buffer 1: copied to by ^C or the "copy" menu item
Buffer 2: copied to by highlight/left-click *and* by ^C (or copy)
Buffer 3: Whatever text is currently being highlighted

^V or the "paste" menu item pastes buffer 1.
Middle-click pastes buffer 3 if it has contents, otherwise buffer 2.

This behavior is not remotely reasonable.  Using the mouse produces the effect
noted before: you can't copy text from one window, highlight in a second, and
then paste the text from the first.  Using ^C and ^V only works because the
cut and paste system that uses ^C and ^V uses a separate buffer that behaves
differently from the one associated with the mouse.

Mozilla has a separate problem in that it doesn't even implement the "correct"
behavior described above.  In Mozilla, middle-click pastes *only* buffer 3
and completely ignores buffer 2.