Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!milano!titan!janssen@titan.sw.mcc.com
From: janssen@titan.sw.mcc.com (Bill Janssen)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.misc
Subject: Re: Cut-and-paste (was Re: sharedx and remote conferencing)
Message-ID: <1060@titan.SW.MCC.COM>
Date: 19 Aug 88 02:32:17 GMT
References: <5411@eagle.ukc.ac.uk> <5442@eagle.ukc.ac.uk> <567@motsj1.UUCP> <5450@eagle.ukc.ac.uk> <532@ashton.UUCP>
Sender: janssen@titan.SW.MCC.COM
Reply-To: janssen@mcc.com (Bill Janssen)
Organization: MCC Software Technology
Lines: 22
In-reply-to: dwiggins@ashtate (Don Dwiggins)

I doubt that the window system has to know about the actual format, though
it might know that the data stored in a "cut-buffer" is stored in some one
of various available formats, and be able to say which format that is
to another application that asks.  `Andrew' data-objects have a nice
protocol for this; you can cut data from the editor running under one
UNIX process and paste it, including all styles and imbedded objects,
into a different incarnation of the editor in different UNIX process.

It would be nice to support some standard semantics for different kinds
of cuts.  For example, it would be nifty to be able to `pick up' an object
in one application and `drop' it into another application.  Presumably
this would involve a pointer-grab, changing the pointer cursor EVERYWHERE,
and sending an event to the application under the pointer when the button
is released, saying something like "An object of type FOO has been passed
to you from application BAR, here's the data: ..." or "data is in
cut-buffer 3" or some such.

Bill

--
 Bill Janssen, MCC Software Technology Program
 ARPA:  janssen@mcc.com
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