[LUNI] RE: One more thing -- KDE

[Martin Maney]

On Sat, Nov 09, 2002 at 03:06:30PM -0800, Noesis wrote:
> The perfect example of where the traditional "highlight to copy"
> method is irritating is while working in the address bar of a browser.

I can't disagree with your description of the difficulty, but it's not
the fault of the X selection mechanism.  No, really, I'm *serious*. 
The problem is that browser designers have never come to terms with the
dual nature of that URL text box.  Here's a hack you can use as a
workaround until browser-makers get their heads out of their backsides:

javascript:q=document.getSelection();if(!q){void(q=prompt('Enter URL:',''))};if(q)location.href=q

I have it setup as a bookmark named "Jump!", but you can decide what
works best for you.  Yes, the text box *is* too small... this is open
source, you can do that.  But before you fix that, why don't you write
to the maker of your favorite browser and explain that you want a
widget you can just drop text into and have it replace the address
bar's content.  Mozilla fans are invited to hack the X??? code (I
forget the acronym) that defines all this UI stuff.  IE users, well,
you knew you were screwed already, di'ncha?  :-/

> There are plenty of other examples.  It is nice to see Ctrl+C been 
> used more commonly in X.

Provided it's being properly used, it would be that.  From what I read
a few minutes ago, it's being used (in KDE3) as an excuse to break the
primary selection mechanism, and that sucks.

(BTW, Galeon seems to get this right.  I can select and then edit/copy
to place one text in the clipboard and then select another that becomes
the primary selection.  Then the first text can be inserted bye
edit/paste, and the second by middle-click.  That's how it's supposed
to work.  Alas, standard xterms only seem to setup bindings for the
primary selection... but it looks like you could bind to copy to or
paste from the clipboard.  I don't think we want to use control-C here,
though, so consistency would seem to argue against control-C (and, I
assume, control-V for paste?), or at least argue that there should be
other more sharable bindings as well.)
 
-- 
One lesson I've learned from my years as Linux's hood ornament is that
there's something worse: some folks can't be content to just take things
too seriously on their own.  They're not happy unless they can convince
others to go along with their obsession.  -- Linus