title: clipboard
lastupdated: 2008-08-24


GNUstep's clipboard implementation should work well with other desktop
environments (that is, should fully support the X selection mechanism and
conventions).


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<h2 id="sec-1">Tasks</h2>
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<h2 id="sec-2">Notes</h2>
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<h3 id="sec-2.1">gpbs</h3>
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<ul>
<li>
It looks like we need both gpbs and X selection mechanism.
</li>
<li>
gpbs will handle the OpenStep side of things
</li>
<li>
gpbs should not handle the X selection interface, since gpbs may be running
on a different host from the X server, and may not be able to connect to
the X server.
</li>
<li>
X selection mechanism should be handled by gnustep-back
</li>
<li>
need to modify the interface between gnustep-gui and gnustep-back
<ul>
<li>
gnustep-gui should pass clipboard requests to gnustep-gui
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
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<h3 id="sec-2.2">pasteboard types/selection targets</h3>
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<ul>
<li>
pasteboard should advertise support for targets (by responding to the
<code>TARGETS</code> target) named after the GNUstep pasteboard type names
(<code>NS*PboardType</code>), the standard X selection targets, and MIME types
</li>
<li>
obviously, GNUstep programs should favour GNUstep pasteboard type names when
requesting from the X selection
</li>
<li>
pasteboard class should maintain a mapping of GNUstep pasteboard types and
X selection targets, and conversion functions
</li>
<li>
mappings should be given a priority.
<ul>
<li>
e.g. both <code>NSStringPboardType</code> and <code>NSTabularTextPboardType</code> could provide
data for a selection target <code>TEXT</code>, but if <code>TEXT</code> is requested, and both
pasteboard types are provided, <code>NSStringPboardType</code> should be used
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
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<h3 id="sec-2.3">pasteboard names</h3>
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<ul>
<li>
pasteboard names correspond to selection names
</li>
<li>
<code>CLIPBOARD</code> should be mapped to <code>NSGeneralPboard</code>
</li>
<li>
<code>XdndSelection</code> should be mapped to <code>NSDragPboard</code>
</li>
<li>
when a program creates a new unique pasteboard name, it should be of the form
"<code>GS_&lt;PID&gt;_&lt;SERIAL&gt;</code>" to ensure uniqueness

</li>
</ul>
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<h2 id="sec-3">References</h2>
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<ul>
<li>
<a href="http://tronche.com/gui/x/icccm/sec-2.html">ICCCM spec on selections</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/clipboards-spec">X clipboard explanation</a> from freedesktop.org
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/~jch/software/UTF8_STRING">UTF8_STRING</a> interchange
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/clipboard-manager-spec">Clipboard Manager specification</a> - daemon for persistent clipboard data
storage after the program exits
</li>
</ul>
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