Change behaviour of Copy/Cut/Paste from the menu bar.

Change behaviour of Copy/Cut/Paste from the menu bar.

[Jan D.]

Hello

As has been pointed out, Emacs does not "behave" w.r.t. the CLIPBOARD
and other newer X applications.  Basically, the guideline in
http://freedesktop.org/Standards/clipboards-spec/clipboards.txt says:

When selecting with the mouse -> Save to PRIMARY (Emacs does that).
When using keys/menus (which in Emacs case would be just menus):
Copy -> Save to CLIPBOARD
Cut -> Save to CLIPBOARD
Paste -> Paste from CLIPBOARD

Now, if menu-bar-enable-clipboard is called we are almost there,
except for the Paste thing.  Emacs always pastes from the kill ring,
even if there is a CLIPBOARD selection.  So I suggest that we modify
lisp/term/x-term.el as below.  My question is if this is OK, and how
does the other ports (W32, Mac) handle Paste from the menu?  Is it
always from the clipboard, or from the kill-ring?

Thanks,

	Jan D.

Index: lisp/term/x-win.el
*** lisp/term/x-win.el.~1.166.~	2003-09-01 17:45:36.000000000 +0200
--- lisp/term/x-win.el	2004-01-20 16:05:17.000000000 +0100
***************
*** 2385,2396 ****
  	;; generated from FONT.
  	(create-fontset-from-ascii-font font resolved-name "startup"))))
  
- ;; Sun expects the menu bar cut and paste commands to use the clipboard.
- ;; This has ,? to match both on Sunos and on Solaris.
- (if (string-match "Sun Microsystems,? Inc\\."
- 		  (x-server-vendor))
-     (menu-bar-enable-clipboard))
- 
  ;; Apply a geometry resource to the initial frame.  Put it at the end
  ;; of the alist, so that anything specified on the command line takes
  ;; precedence.
--- 2385,2390 ----
***************
*** 2456,2460 ****
--- 2450,2470 ----
  ;; Turn on support for mouse wheels.
  (mouse-wheel-mode 1)
  
+ ;; Enable CLIPBOARD copy/paste through menu bar commands.
+ (menu-bar-enable-clipboard)
+ 
+ ;; Override Paste so it looks at CLIPBOARD first.
+ (defun x-clipboard-yank ()
+   "Insert the clipboard contents, or the last stretch of killed text."
+   (interactive)
+   (let ((clipboard-text (x-get-selection 'CLIPBOARD))
+ 	(x-select-enable-clipboard t))
+     (if (and clipboard-text (> (length clipboard-text) 0))
+ 	(kill-new clipboard-text))
+     (yank)))
+ 
+ (define-key menu-bar-edit-menu [paste]
+   (cons "Paste" (cons "Paste text from clipboard" 'x-clipboard-yank)))
+ 
  ;;; arch-tag: f1501302-db8b-4d95-88e3-116697d89f78
  ;;; x-win.el ends here

Re: Change behaviour of Copy/Cut/Paste from the menu bar.

[Jason Rumney]

Jan D. wrote:

>Now, if menu-bar-enable-clipboard is called we are almost there,
>except for the Paste thing.  Emacs always pastes from the kill ring,
>even if there is a CLIPBOARD selection.  So I suggest that we modify
>lisp/term/x-term.el as below.  My question is if this is OK, and how
>does the other ports (W32, Mac) handle Paste from the menu?  Is it
>always from the clipboard, or from the kill-ring?
>  
>
On W32, x-select-enable-clipboard defaults to t. There is no seperate 
SELECTION on Windows, so this gives the behavior users expect. It means 
we always paste from the clipboard unless Emacs is the clipboard owner, 
in which case we use the kill-ring to avoid clobbering Mule characters 
(code to handle this is in w32select.c).

Re: Change behaviour of Copy/Cut/Paste from the menu bar.

[Jan D.]

> Jan D. wrote:
>
>> Now, if menu-bar-enable-clipboard is called we are almost there,
>> except for the Paste thing.  Emacs always pastes from the kill ring,
>> even if there is a CLIPBOARD selection.  So I suggest that we modify
>> lisp/term/x-term.el as below.  My question is if this is OK, and how
>> does the other ports (W32, Mac) handle Paste from the menu?  Is it
>> always from the clipboard, or from the kill-ring?
>>
> On W32, x-select-enable-clipboard defaults to t. There is no seperate 
> SELECTION on Windows, so this gives the behavior users expect. It 
> means we always paste from the clipboard unless Emacs is the clipboard 
> owner, in which case we use the kill-ring to avoid clobbering Mule 
> characters (code to handle this is in w32select.c).

Thanks.  Unfortunately we can not just set x-select-enable-clipboard to 
t,
it would mean that just marking text with the mouse goes to the 
CLIPBOARD.
Sounds like the behaviour wanted by the freedesktop.org is designed
to be W32 compatible.

	Jan D.

Re: Change behaviour of Copy/Cut/Paste from the menu bar.

[Richard Stallman]

    - ;; Sun expects the menu bar cut and paste commands to use the clipboard.
    - ;; This has ,? to match both on Sunos and on Solaris.
    - (if (string-match "Sun Microsystems,? Inc\\."
    - 		  (x-server-vendor))
    -     (menu-bar-enable-clipboard))
    - 

Are you sure this should be deleted?
Someone should check what other programs do on Solaris.

    + ;; Enable CLIPBOARD copy/paste through menu bar commands.
    + (menu-bar-enable-clipboard)
    + 
    + ;; Override Paste so it looks at CLIPBOARD first.
    + (defun x-clipboard-yank ()
    +   "Insert the clipboard contents, or the last stretch of killed text."
    +   (interactive)
    +   (let ((clipboard-text (x-get-selection 'CLIPBOARD))
    + 	(x-select-enable-clipboard t))
    +     (if (and clipboard-text (> (length clipboard-text) 0))
    + 	(kill-new clipboard-text))
    +     (yank)))
    + 
    + (define-key menu-bar-edit-menu [paste]
    +   (cons "Paste" (cons "Paste text from clipboard" 'x-clipboard-yank)))
    + 
      ;;; arch-tag: f1501302-db8b-4d95-88e3-116697d89f78

This is ok, but I think the help string should say
"Paste text from clipboard or kill ring".

Re: Change behaviour of Copy/Cut/Paste from the menu bar.

[Jan D.]

>     - ;; Sun expects the menu bar cut and paste commands to use the 
> clipboard.
>     - ;; This has ,? to match both on Sunos and on Solaris.
>     - (if (string-match "Sun Microsystems,? Inc\\."
>     - 		  (x-server-vendor))
>     -     (menu-bar-enable-clipboard))
>     -
>
> Are you sure this should be deleted?
> Someone should check what other programs do on Solaris.

Well, it is redundant now that menu-bar-enable-clipboard is always 
called
below.

>
>     + ;; Enable CLIPBOARD copy/paste through menu bar commands.
>     + (menu-bar-enable-clipboard)
>     +
>     + ;; Override Paste so it looks at CLIPBOARD first.
>     + (defun x-clipboard-yank ()
>     +   "Insert the clipboard contents, or the last stretch of killed 
> text."
>     +   (interactive)
>     +   (let ((clipboard-text (x-get-selection 'CLIPBOARD))
>     + 	(x-select-enable-clipboard t))
>     +     (if (and clipboard-text (> (length clipboard-text) 0))
>     + 	(kill-new clipboard-text))
>     +     (yank)))
>     +
>     + (define-key menu-bar-edit-menu [paste]
>     +   (cons "Paste" (cons "Paste text from clipboard" 
> 'x-clipboard-yank)))
>     +
>       ;;; arch-tag: f1501302-db8b-4d95-88e3-116697d89f78
>
> This is ok, but I think the help string should say
> "Paste text from clipboard or kill ring".

I'll change it.

	Jan D.