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Path: utzoo!utcs!wagner
From: wagner@utcs.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: to clipboard or not to clipboard
Message-ID: <1986Dec20.113948.1621@utcs.uucp>
Date: Sat, 20-Dec-86 11:39:48 EST
Article-I.D.: utcs.1986Dec20.113948.1621
Posted: Sat Dec 20 11:39:48 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 20-Dec-86 12:38:57 EST
References: <1878@jade.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: wagner@utcs.UUCP (Michael Wagner)
Organization: University of Toronto Computing Services, general purpose UNIX
Lines: 29
Checksum: 10340

In article <1878@jade.BERKELEY.EDU> mwm@eris.BERKELEY.EDU (Mike (Don't have strength to leave) Meyer) writes:
>
>I'd been thinking about adding access to the clipboard to mg. But this
>makes it seem like a bad idea. The general rule would seem to be: "If
>it deals with IFF format files, make it deal with the clipboard.
>Otherwise, don't bother."

Well, I'm not sure that this is right.  I read all the follow-ups to this
article, and I think there is at least one thing that people missed.
The clipboard is a single, fixed place.  You don't have to put up a requester,
and interact with the user.  

I have to admit that, if your application is not using IFF and 'into' making
provision for interchange, it's a pain to use the clipboard.  However, there
are advantages for doing so.  Clipping the words to a tune out of a music
program, and pasting them into a word processor is a useful thing.  Now,
perhaps, it can be argued that the music processor should have provided this
ability for flat files as well, but I would argue that there is no reason for
the music program to provide the same functionality twice.  The clipboard is
there...one should be able to rely on it's use by other programs that want to
interchange with each other.  

Perhaps it would help if there were tools (are there already?) to take flat
text and put it into the clipboard (and vice versa).

Ramble, ramble......I've been away for a week, and there are 350+ articles
in comp.sys.amiga to read.   Groan!

Michael