Cut, Copy, Paste Nightmare

[Les Mikesell]

On Wed, 2006-05-31 at 22:33, Tim wrote:

> > Oddly enough, I've always found it to be a plus and when I get on a
> > windows box it drives me nuts that I have to actually do something
> > other than select the text to get it to the clipboard.  I use X's
> > highlight select for text all the time.
> 
> I find the Linux way of doing it a right pain in the bum.  Two typical
> scenarios:
> 
> First
> -----
> Linux:  I have some document with a word I'd like to replace.  I *have*
> to delete the word, find and highlight its new replacement, paste it
> into the document.

You get your choice: highlight the source, middle-mouse to paste, then
select and delete the previous (which is no harder than selecting ahead
of the paste), or select and right-mouse/copy
the source, select the target and right-mouse/paste to replace
it.  I tend to do the latter in places like a browser URL window
or other cramped places where having 2 copies pushes one out
of sight and the former in free-form areas where there is
room to see what you are doing because it tends to be faster
and you may just be doing an insert, not a replace.

> Windows:  Highlight the word to be replaced, and paste the new word over
> the top of it.

You forgot to mention the extra step necessary here.  After you
highlight the selection to copy you must do an extra step to
copy it to the clipboard. 

>   I can do this multiple times, just with new pastes.  I
> don't have to delete + copy + paste ad nauseum.  And, no, sometimes
> doing a search and replace through an editor function isn't always
> doable.  What I put in the copy buffer stays there until I want rid of
> it.

No difference there if you used the right-mouse copy/paste
method.

> Second:
> Linux:  I've highlighted some details from an e-mail that I want to put
> into the email configuration.  I open up the configuration, and the
> first editable data in it is already highlighted by the application.

If you don't want to copy to the clipboard, do it the other way
around.  That is, open the thing that does the silly auto-select
first, then go select the text you want.

> It's now in the copy buffer, and I can't paste what *I* had previously
> copied.  I can't go back to the other window and copy again, because
> operations with it are blocked. 

Huh?

>  I can't even see the other window,
> because two other windows are on top of it, and only one of them can be
> moved.  I have to close one window, move the middle one, re-open the one
> I want to edit.

I think you need a different application if it won't let you
put whatever window you want on top. I've never understood
why applications that run under a perfectly good windowing
system try to manage multiple windows themselves and do it
badly.

> This is a HELL of a lot of mucking around.

Agreed, but it's not necessary.

-- 
  Les Mikesell
   lesmikesell at gmail.com