Cut, Copy, Paste Nightmare

[Ed Greshko]

Matthew Saltzman wrote:
> On Fri, 2 Jun 2006, Les Mikesell wrote:
> 
>> On Fri, 2006-06-02 at 18:27 -0400, David Cary Hart wrote:
>>
>>> I would be very happy if ctrls c, x and v would work the way they are
>>> expected to work across the board.
>>
>> I expect control-c to interrupt and kill an application as it has
>> for decades.  Why would you want to change that?
> 
> CTRL-C in a terminal window kills the running program launched from that
> window.  CTRL-C doesn't (and never has in my recollection) kill the
> window itself.

I'm fairly sure that is what Les meant.  Application="running program".

>>>  That the functionality seems to
>>> vary among applications (along with right-click, middle-click and
>>> shift-insert) makes life a whole lot more complicated than it should
>>> be. Sometimes, it is rather frustrating if you are moving text
>>> around a great deal between applications and sometimes the command
>>> line.
>>
>> Still, no one has said what doesn't work with right-mouse/copy and
>> paste.  I use those with synergy making a single keyboard/mouse
>> span several machines, both Linux and windows and there are few
>> exceptions to right-mouse copy/paste working the same even when
>> the clipboard gets dragged over to a different OS.
> 
> Having to reach for the mouse is a pain in the butt.  Usually, keyboard
> shortcuts are much more efficient (modulo the need to learn new ones for
> every damned program--the fact that CTRl-W in the location field kills
> the current Firefox window is annoying as all get-out, because in most
> terminals it just backward-deletes a word).

How would "backward-deletes a word" have any meaning in the context of
running Firefox?

Speaking of context, Ctrl-C has had meaning in the context of a hardware
terminal that predates any windows based system.  I was never big on DOS
as my experience was with terminals connected to mainframe systems.
However, I don't recall that DOS had a concept of Ctrl-C being a "copy"
operation.  So, maybe we have to back determine who thought Ctrl-C was a
good idea to start out?

Whoever imagines "Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V" is universally implemented in the MS
world apparently has used a limited number of applications in that
world. (I suppose that should be applauded.)  One well known terminal
emulation program uses "Ctrl-Insert/Shift-Insert" for copy/paste
operations.

Personally, I'm not bothered by the fact that methods for cut/paste (and
other things) may vary between applications.  I tend to adapt and think
in the context in which I am working.  I can't think of any examples,
but the only thing that would truly be annoying would be if key strokes
took on different meaning within a given application depending on what
window of that application you had open.  And, I get mildly annoyed if
the methods change between versions of an application.  Yet, I do adapt.
 I give the developers the benefit of the doubt...I'm sure the decision
to change it wasn't taken lightly.

I will say one thing....it is not helpful when folks reply with "what
nightmare?".  It doesn't help to minimize someone's pain.  We've all
seen parents at the doctor's office trying to comfort their screaming
child by saying..."Oh, its a small needle...it doesn't hurt".  Right,
the parent feels no pain at all.

I guess the question I would have asked at the start of this thread
would have been "What applications are you trying to cut and paste
between?" and then go about trying to solve that problem.

I suppose one could insist on rejecting the resolution because it isn't
the way they want it to be.  But, that would simply be a
misunderstanding of the terms:  "Works as expected" and "Works as Designed".


-- 
Nobody's gonna believe that computers are intelligent until they start
coming in late and lying about it.