Re: c&p from gnumeric

[Vlad Harchev <hvv hippo ru>]

On Wed, 20 Jun 2001, Zbigniew Chyla wrote:

> On Wed, 2001-06-20 at 21:27:49, Vlad Harchev wrote:
>
> > > We need only "Copy special" in Gnumeric. We discussed this long time ago.
> >
> >  Hmm, it's a complete hack designed to work around stupidity of
>
> No, it's not "complete hack". Image the following scenario:
>  1. You're editing HTML file in vi inside gnome-terminal
>  2. You need some data from Gnumeric file, so you open it and select "Copy".
>     There are two active plugins: HTML and LaTeX. HTML plugin can export
>     data as "text/html", "text/unicode", "TEXT", "STRING", "UTF8_STRING".
>     LaTeX plugin can export data as "text/latex", "TEXT", "STRING".
>     Externally Gnumeric exports all of them as "TARGETS" (in case of
>     conflict choosing the option with higher priority).
>  3. You're trying to paste HTML to gnome-terminal but you DON'T KNOW if you
>     end up with pasted HTML or LaTeX data. It depends on something you can't
>     change if you are average Gnumeric user.

 Yes, with current state of support for X selection formats (for checking
which formats are available) by majority of apps this scenario is very typical
and very useful (and it always be useful for console apps running in xterm and
for general purpose editors like gedit - but it would be better if these apps
allowed "paste special" that will allow to select in which format to paste
though). But if support for multiplie X selection formats is properly
implemented for apps of other classes, there won't be need for user to use
"Copy special" when copying data from gnumeric - the app that the data gets
pasted into will select (using hardcoded list of priorities) the most richest
format.

 The only X app that can provide X selection data in really variety of formats
I know of is Mozilla 0.8 (other versions not tested) - it provides data in
text/html, utf8 (or unicode) text, and plain COMPOUND_TEXT format.  I
guess Mozilla page composer also properly supports pasting data and will
select text/html for pasting if it's available, and falls back to
COMPOUND_TEXT if it's not (so it could be an example of the app that handles
pasting properly).

 All other "office" software doesn't try to provide and acquire data in
multiplie formats (I specially checked all I could find) - besides AbiWord and
Ted which use special format names for RTF.

> > [stupidity of] html and latex editors that don't check in what format X
> > selection is available I guess.
>
> Excuse me, but what is "latex editor"? I'm afraid I don't know any :-)
> That's the problem - there's no "latex editor", "DIF editor", "CSV editor".
> We need "Copy special" to paste data in "textual" format selected by the
> user.

 As for html editor - as I said above - Mozilla composer, and a lot of others 
fall into this category (quanta) and various visual HTML editing widgets -
XmHtml, gtkhtml etc. Example of latex editor is [K]Lyx. Also advanced 
WYSIWYG word processors that support importing HTML can try to support
pasting of html. So, you are completely forgetting about WYSIWYG stuff.

 Like I said, implemented this "hack" won't affect ability to implement cut
and paste properly, so please provide both solutions. And this "hack" is
really useful today, since literally almost no software for X care about
providing/getting X selection properly.

 So: please try to implement support for X selection in gnumeric properly. 

 Best regards,
  -Vlad