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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: Sick of the mouse mess!
From:       Kuba Ober <kuba () mareimbrium ! org>
Date:       2002-02-16 18:32:50
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On Saturday 16 February 2002 08:24 am, Richard Stevens wrote:
> > If there were a choice for the behavoir one could specify, that would be
> > great.
> >
> > What is WORSE, is having a MIXTURE of both.
>
> Well, I guess it's personal taste. I totally agree with both of your
> statements above though!

I presume we can all live with UNIX-only scheme, although I'd add one thing 
to it:
ability to *quickly* select (w/o using keyboard) which one of the recent 
klipper entries you want to paste.
That's where the real problem lies: suppose we have the single scenario 
everybody is so complaining about:

- select text (1) -> it gets auto-copied
- select some other text (2) to be overwritten
- go to the klipper to choose text (1)
- mmb paste text (1)

The windows way of
- select text (1)
- ^C - copy it
- ^V paste it
is clearly much easier.

The third step in unix way is very annoying.
I'd do it like that:
- mmb opens a pull-down list of recent klipper entries
- you either (all ways of doing it should be supported)
a) lmb click on the one you want to paste - this requires some mouse motion 
over the drop-down list
b) use scroll whel to move list selector up/down and mmb click again 
(anywhere on screen) to paste it - this has the advantage of not requiring 
mouse motion, just mmb + [wheel to choose] + mmb
c) use up/down arrow keys + enter - this is for souls using keyboard

I also think that ^C should do nothing more than set a (newly introduced) 
default_selection = blah flag in klipper that the next paste will be the one 
that was last selected before the ^C was pressed (i.e. that further 
selections will be noticed by klipper, but not choosen as 
default-for-pasting) - the drop down list for the next paste is automaticly 
disabled as well. After the paste, the default_selection gets reverted to -1, 
so it's ignored.

^V should then do the same thing that mmb does

This approach has many advantages to me, and people coming from both worlds 
may just happen to like it:
1. select + ^C + ^V works just the windows way
2. as people get to know mmb, the select + ^C + mmb works windows way as well
3. if you choose not to use ^C, the select + mmb works with drop-down list, 
which has three convenient interfaces: mouse - a), b) and keyboard c)
4. for hardcore unix folks, the drop-down list can be disabled with a simple 
checkbox presumably in both klipper and control-center mouse panel
5. there's no need to mention windows: just provide "disable drop-down paste 
list"

One scenario which I left out is: select + ^C + ^V + subsequent ^V's: for 
subsequent ^V/mmb's, the default_selection reverts to -1, so it's ignored, so 
that people get presented with the menu - this will make all windows folks 
automaticly exposed to the new functionality. I don't know whether this is 
good or wrong, but I assume that's acceptable, and that doesn't require you 
to move away from the keyboard - the up/down arrow + enter way of choosing 
the selection to paste works.

I presume it would be useful for me to write a patch for that and submit for 
testing, right?
Would changes against kde 2.2.2 be fine, or is klipper changed too much in 
3.0?

Cheers,
Kuba
 
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