Cut, Copy, Paste Nightmare

[Ian Burrell]

David Cary Hart <Fedora <at> TQMcube.com> writes:
> 
> Maybe the problem is in KDE. Sometimes ctrl-c works; sometimes it
> does not. Sometimes highlight->right-click-≥copy works.
> 
> But the biggest problem is with paste. ctrl-v never works.
> Shift-insert works but I never know what it will paste. Similarly,
> the middle button of my mouse works but I never know what I will get
> and it is different from the results of shift-insert.
> 
> So in summary after copy or cut, I am never sure whether shift-insert
> or the mouse-middle-button will paste the just cut text. Frequently,
> neither works properly.
> 
> Anyone else? Any suggestions? This is one of those minor annoyances
> that is extremely frustrating at times.
> 

Keep in my mind that there are two different mechanisms.  The selection is the
currently highlighted text and it is pasted by the middle-mouse button.  It is
lost when something else is selected or the highlighting is lost.  

The clipboard is explicitly copied or cut from the selection.  Ctrl-C, Ctrl-X,
and Ctrl-V are supposed to be the standard keyboard shortcuts for those.  The
older shortcuts, Shift-Ins, Ctrl-Ins also work in many apps.  Gnome Terminal,
for example, is different so it doesn't interfere with normal terminal
keyboards; it uses Shift-Ctrl-C, etc.

My impression is that KDE was one of the last systems to change to the standard
clipboard scheme and shortcuts.  There are still a few applications which do
things differently; Emacs is the most annoying one to me.

 - Ian