Subject: bug#6774: Cut and paste with C-w/mouse-2 not working?

From: David De La Harpe Golden <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:52:12 +0100

On 02/08/10 14:32, Angelo Graziosi wrote:

> I do not doubt that, internally, things are different. Anyway, from the
> 'End User' point of view,

Well, the whole area is end-user visible.

> C-w/mouse-2 (in Emacs)
>
> should behave in the same way of
>
> C-X/mouse-2 (in other X applications like Konqueror, Kate etc.)
 >

Well, beware Chong Yidong has already brought to light other recent X 
applications where that doesn't work - try it in GNOME gedit...

That said, I think the KDE Kate type behaviour is obviously more useful, 
more common, and more in keeping with the intent of the spec if not the 
letter, and the one to aim for.

> So, at the moment, Emacs, in this regard (Copy/Paste), from the 'End
> User' point of view, behaves differently from other X applications.

Undoubtedly.  It didn't historically behave like other (recent*) X 
applications either though. In the specific case of C-w directly 
followed by mouse-2 it may have appeared to but something quite 
different was going on behind the scenes. This attempt to make it do so 
is relatively new (well what's really new is that it was switched on by 
default, exposing it to a greater userbase and exposing a host of 
problems...).

If you are interested to try the experimental branch I mentioned you'll 
probably find it acts more sensibly in this area:

bzr branch lp:~ddlhg/emacs/selx

It's just not in a fit state for inclusion wholesale in emacs at time of 
writing, but you might be able to say if it's the behaviour you expect, 
and then maybe we can find a somewhat saner way to actually implement it.

 > BTW, if I add the step:
 > 1.1 I choose: Options | C-x/.../C-v Cut and Paste (CUA)
 > then C-x/mouse-2, in Emacs still does not work!

Nor would it be expected to, until the underlying issue is addressed. 
All (well not all, but for our present purposes) CUA mode does is make 
C-x/C-c/C-v in emacs act like C-w/M-w/C-y in eamcs.

Note this is THE major problem with the unhelpful "oh just turn on cua 
mode" response emacs newbies sometimes get to their whining about "cut 
and paste not working right".  The problem isn't the bindings:

If %(emacs' C-w/M-w/C-y) doesn't act like $(other apps' C-x/C-c/C-v), 
then making &(emacs' C-x/C-c/C-y) act like %(emacs' C-w/M-y/C-y) still 
doesn't make  &(emacs' C-x/C-c/C-y) act like $(other apps' C-x/C-c/C-v)

* It's worth bearing in mind that emacs has been around a _lot_ longer 
than these newfangled standardisations, and many long-time emacs users 
actively prefer the now-quirky emacs historic behaviour.