Re: [icon-users] CTRL-C, CTRL-V annoyance

  • From: Martin Wuerthner <lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: icon-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2012 11:53:12 +0200

In message <527dc90664riscos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
          Richard Ashbery <riscos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Re: Paste into EW paragraph

> Thanks for your replies.

> John - Text selection indicated in structure bar not paragraph.

> Spent the best part of a day trying to find out why this is happening.
> The change occurs between a !Boot saved on 03-02-2010 and one saved on
> 29-07-2010. I can't be certain but this is when I may have upgraded
> from 5.13 to 5.16. I can't believe I haven't noticed this paste
> problem before now - eye's closed again. Anyway I am unable to isolate
> the problem to a specific part of the Boot. I have EW 8.92 running on
> RISC OS 5.19 on the Beagleboard and paste works correctly. I think I'll
> have to update the Iyonix to 5.18.

I doubt that the RISC OS version has anything to do with it. The OS is 
not involved at all in what is happening here.

The most logical explanation for your problem is that you have a rogue 
clipboard "helper" utility that takes clipboard ownership away from 
EasiWriter by requesting the clipboard contents in some standard 
format (e.g., text or HTML) and then claims the clipboard itself, 
i.e., an application that always downgrades the clipboard from any 
rich native format to a standard format. That would be a violation of 
the clipboard protocol though.

Also, it would have far more serious consequences than just inserting 
pasted text as a new paragraph: It would also remove a lot of 
information from the copied text, i.e., downgrade it to plain text 
without any font changes etc.

I had a suspicion, so I have just checked it and I can confirm that 
UniPrint's "UniClip" feature does indeed break the RISC OS clipboard 
in the way I describe above. This is why I have switched that feature 
off in UniPrint. I remember discussing this problem with Alan Wrigley, 
but somehow we did not reach a conclusion back then. It is possible to 
implement a feature like UniClip without disturbing other 
applications. The Select ClipboardHolder module does something 
similar, and that works correctly.

It is precisely problems like this that prompted David Pilling to make 
the use of the system-wide clipboard (the "Universal clipboard") 
optional in OvationPro. Such a step should not be necessary though and 
I will not do that for EasiWriter. Other applications should obey the 
protocol.

So, for the time being, the conclusion is that UniPrint's UniClip 
feature stops EasiWriter/TechWriter from copying/pasting correctly and 
I recommend switching UniClip off (can be done in !UniCtrl).

Martin
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