On Friday 04 June 2004 01:05 pm, Jamethiel Knorth wrote: > Okay, I still haven't gotten any reply about this. I think it's fairly > important, so I'm going to go ahead on it. If nobody comments otherwise, > I'll be sending the following recommendation to the xdg mailing list (the > place where they work on freedesktop.org specifications) this Saturday > night: > > > ---- Begin What I Would Send ---- > > There appears to be no current standard for how to treat keyboard > selections, as opposed to mouse selections, in regards to the > cut/copy/paste buffer. I would like to recommend the following three > additions to the freedesktop.org specification on treatment of > cut/copy/paste buffers. [1] > > > The following paragraph should be added after the summary of the proper > behavior and before the bulleted list describing the problems with the > improper behavior: > > Regarding how keyboard selections, no standard has yet arisen. To clarify > usage, selections made by the keyboards should be treated the same as > selections made by the keyboard. The PRIMARY selection is treated as the > current selection, not the selection last made by the mouse. > > > The following point should be added to the list of things application > programmers should do to support this standard (likely as the second > point): > > - selections made using the keyboard should be treated the same as > selections made using the mouse > > > There is likely a need for some reference to keyboards in the historical > section of that document as well. > > > For examples of where this is currently being done differently: > > OpenOffice: treats mouse and keyboard selections the same. > Mozilla: treats mouse and keyboard selections the same. > Qt Widgets: ignore keyboard selections. > GTK Widgets: fail on both keyboard and mouse selections. > AbiWord: treats mouse and keyboard selections the same. > KWrite: treats mouse and keyboard selections the same. > The GIMP: fails on keyboard selections. > > This is a significant inconsistency problem in how the cut/copy/paste > buffer is treated, and it is apparently not addressed anywhere. > > ---- End What I Would Send ---- > > > I would also like to be able to note how KWord handles this. If anyone can > inform me on that, it would be nice. If anyone disagrees that this is a > usability issue, they should probably note that as well. And, if anyone has > comments on what I am sending, they should probably give some notice before > I send this Tomorrow night. > > >From: "Jamethiel Knorth" > >Date: Thu, 03 Jun 2004 02:03:40 -0400 > > > >This was something I had noticed before, but not thought much of. I > > checked again, and it is still there. > > > >Selecting text is inconsistent in how it goes to the clipboard. In some > >programs, selecting text using the keyboard allows it to be pasted with > > the middle mouse-button. In others, selections made by the keyboard do > > not. > > > >In all Qt widgets, selecting text with the keyboard doesn't replace the > >text in the buffer. > > > >In the KWrite widget, it does. > > > >I personally prefer to have the selections made by keyboard be sent to the > >buffer. I think it is more consistent to have the middle mouse-button > > paste whatever was last selected, not whatever was last selected by the > > mouse. > > > >Some standardized behavior should be chosen, to enhance consistency on the > >desktop. > > > >I would much prefer to change Qt, as KWrite is more reasonable and is > >following the standard. At the least, Mozilla and OpenOffice both perform > >the same (selection by keyboard replaces the buffer), and we know for a > >certainty that many users will have those applications in their desktop. > > > >As far as I can tell GTK apps (I tried gAIM, gFTP, and AbiWord) are just > >flat-out broken. Selecting text with either the mouse or the keyboard > >erases the buffer but doesn't replace it. AbiWord performs the same as > >OpenOffice for text selected in the body of the document, but not in the > >common GTK widgets. > > > >I didn't get to test KOffice, as it's broken at the moment for me. If > >anyone can find some other examples of how this is used, that would be > >good. I can't find any motif applications on my computer to test them, > >although that's not too important as they are really fading away. If > > anyone has a GNOME installation to work on, it might be good to check how > > some of the GNOME programs handle this. > > > >I looked at what was up on freedesktop.org and saw nothing about this. > > They mention middle-mouse-button paste, but don't seem to state the > > behavior for text selections in the matter, only for the separation > > between selecting text and giving explicit copy/cut commands. Depending > > on what other people have to say here, we should send something along to > > freedesktop.org as well. > I hope that your proposal isn't adopted. Automatic middle copy from a keyboard selection is very annoying when I have something in the X clipboard. _______________________________________________ kde-usability mailing list kde-usability@kde.org https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-usability