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Re: What is the XA_SECONDARY clipboard?

From Charles Lindsey <chl@clerew.man.ac.uk>
Newsgroups comp.os.linux.misc, comp.os.linux.x
Subject Re: What is the XA_SECONDARY clipboard?
Date 2020-04-13 19:07 +0100
Message-ID <hfjo2gFa7t2U1@mid.individual.net> (permalink)
References <o9n8a5$fd6$1@dont-email.me> <eli$1703081723@qz.little-neck.ny.us> <pOidnXhPLuW_WhbDnZ2dnUU78TXNnZ2d@brightview.co.uk>

Cross-posted to 2 groups.

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On 07/04/2020 01:19, Javier wrote:
> In comp.os.linux.misc Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> wrote:
>> In comp.os.linux.misc, T  <T@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>>
>> I added a crosspost to comp.os.linux.x. I had also been hoping someone
>> would answer before me, but...
>>
>>>   From "man xclip" I see that I have three clipboards:
>> ...
>>>      "secondary" or XA_SECONDARY
>>>
>>> I am very familiar with the first two.  What is XA_SECONDARY?
>>> And how do I use it?

Well I missed the start of this thread, but I have been pointed at it.

The essential difference between the Primary and Secondary selections, at least 
so far as text-like files are concerned, is that when you select a piece of text 
(with the intention of copying it, for example), it also moves the insertion 
point (I assume you are in some editor), so after copying it you have to go back 
and find again where the insertion point used to be, so you can paste it there. 
Which is a confounded nuisance.

Twenty years ago, in the days when the Xview toolkit was in vogue, editors made 
use of the secondary selection as it was intended. It is still available in the 
Motif toolkit, and in the nedit editor, but they made it so difficult to use 
that everybody forgot about it. I was still using it on my Sun computer until 
four years ago (both in the editor and the terminal); it was the best thing 
since sliced bread.

When I started using Ubuntu on 386 (yech!) architectures, I started modifying 
GTK to use it properly. My mistake then was to use a 32-bit version of Ubuntu 
when all the rest of the world was turning to 64-bit versions, so although I 
made my 32-bit version available, I don't think anybody used it. Now I have 
moved to 64-bit Ubuntu, I am still running my 32-bit version on it.

So I refer you to http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~lindsec/secondary-selection.html
where you will find a short video (it was my first attempt at creating such a 
video, so excuse its clunkiness) plus a full description of what it is all about.

-- 
Charles H. Lindsey ---------At my New Home, still doing my own thing-----------
Tel: +44 161 488 1845                         Web: http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~chl
Email: chl@clerew.man.ac.uk      Snail: 40 SK8 5BF, U.K.
PGP: 2C15F1A9      Fingerprint: 73 6D C2 51 93 A0 01 E7 65 E8 64 7E 14 A4 AB A5

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Thread

Re: What is the XA_SECONDARY clipboard? Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> - 2017-03-08 22:36 +0000
  Re: What is the XA_SECONDARY clipboard? T <T@invalid.invalid> - 2017-03-16 09:31 -0700
  Re: What is the XA_SECONDARY clipboard? Charles Lindsey <chl@clerew.man.ac.uk> - 2017-03-22 16:23 +0000
    Re: What is the XA_SECONDARY clipboard? Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> - 2017-03-22 20:07 +0000
  Re: What is the XA_SECONDARY clipboard? Javier <javier@invalid.invalid> - 2020-04-06 19:19 -0500
    Re: What is the XA_SECONDARY clipboard? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2020-04-07 02:10 +0000
      Re: What is the XA_SECONDARY clipboard? Javier <javier@invalid.invalid> - 2020-04-07 07:49 -0500
        Re: What is the XA_SECONDARY clipboard? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2020-04-07 15:12 +0000
          Re: What is the XA_SECONDARY clipboard? Javier <javier@invalid.invalid> - 2020-04-07 15:13 -0500
    Re: What is the XA_SECONDARY clipboard? F Russell <fr@random.info> - 2020-04-07 02:48 +0000
      Re: What is the XA_SECONDARY clipboard? T <T@invalid.invalid> - 2020-04-06 21:41 -0700
        Re: What is the XA_SECONDARY clipboard? Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> - 2020-04-13 00:49 +0000
          Re: What is the XA_SECONDARY clipboard? Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2020-04-13 09:18 +0100
    Re: What is the XA_SECONDARY clipboard? Charles Lindsey <chl@clerew.man.ac.uk> - 2020-04-13 19:07 +0100
      Re: What is the XA_SECONDARY clipboard? Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> - 2020-04-13 19:51 +0000
        Re: What is the XA_SECONDARY clipboard? Charles Lindsey <chl@clerew.man.ac.uk> - 2020-04-14 21:00 +0100
          Re: What is the XA_SECONDARY clipboard? Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2020-04-14 22:13 +0100
          Re: What is the XA_SECONDARY clipboard? Andreas Kohlbach <ank@spamfence.net> - 2020-04-15 08:16 -0400
  Re: What is the XA_SECONDARY clipboard? Javier <javier@invalid.invalid> - 2020-04-06 19:27 -0500

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