Subject: Re: bug#27442: Un-obsolete x-clipboard-yank, or provide analogous functional

From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 05 Jul 2021 17:28:02 +0200

Stefan Monnier <[email-masked]> writes:

> AFAIK this part of the clipboard interaction is one I just preserved
> from earlier code when I did my "gui-selection" rework.
> I "just preserved" it because I don't really understand how it's
> intended to work, nor do I understand enough of the design constraints
> to be able to come up with my own design of how it should work :-(

*ponder* Well, I guess it's a vague kind of DWIM thing going on...
Since we don't have timestamps on our own kills, and
`select-enable-clipboard' defaults to t, we want to let a clipboard
selection "win" if we haven't yanked it before?  But...  it seems to me
like this is already handled by other logic when putting things on the
kill ring in the first place.

That is, if you "emacs -Q", put something on the clipboard from a
different programme, and when `M-w' something in Emacs, then `C-y' will
insert the latter.

I've tested various things here now, and I'm unable to come up with a
scenario where the current DWIM logic is helpful, really.

Anybody else able to deduce what the point of the code is?  And if they
do, can they put some comments in `gui-selection-value'?

> Your patch looks acceptable to me (it is also disappointing because
> it doesn't really help understand how this thing is intended to work,
> but it follows the same principles as the ones I followed).

:-)

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no