Age old problem: disable middle-mouse copy, but not paste, system-wide

Pancake_Palace · 2012-08-22 11:03:49

1 Select.
2 Copy.
3 Select.
4 Paste.

Wait, why didn't anything change?

What is a good way, or possibly clipboard manager with the right feature, to allow only for explicit copy (such as ctrl+v), but still have a merged clipboard with middle-click paste?

Trilby · 2012-08-22 11:31:06

AFAIK there is not middle click copy to disable.

Middle-click, in X, pastes whatever is currently selected. In otherwords, get rid of your steps 2 and 3.

Every clipboard manager I've seen has the capability you're looking for. Some of them require it to be enabled in a configuration.

Pancake_Palace · 2012-08-22 13:41:50

Trilby wrote:

AFAIK there is not middle click copy to disable.
Middle-click, in X, pastes whatever is currently selected. In otherwords, get rid of your steps 2 and 3.

Add more work to deal with poor behavior that should be unnecessary in the first place? I can deal with workarounds, but it would be easier to leave the selections independent than add the steps to turn a replacement into a find, delete, switch, select, paste, deselect, operation. But, that leaves the awfully convenient middle button with nothing useful to do. Feel sorry for the button! It wants to be pressed.

Every clipboard manager I've seen has the capability you're looking for. Some of them require it to be enabled in a configuration.

I know one either exists, or that there is another workaround, because I used to be able to get it working like I want, but it has been awhile (blame Windows 7 not sucking badly). So far, the following that I found in the repos do not do it:
xclipboard
Clipman
Parcellite
Klipper

Now that I think about, the behavior would be to sync the clipboard and selection to one stack, but as long as the primary selection was not empty, paste the 2nd item in the stack, instead of the top, since a non-empty selection with the sync guarantees undesired behavior for a paste. Voila! Now how did I do it, and/or some program I am not now using do it, 3-4 years ago?

Trilby · 2012-08-22 13:50:51

I don't know how you consider removing two out of four steps adding more work.

I guess I'm also not clear on what behavior you actually want, as the ones you listed as not working do just what I thought you wanted.

Pancake_Palace · 2012-08-22 14:43:19

Let's say I select a URL in the address bar, and want to paste a URL from elsewhere into it. Well, the primary selection is now the address that I want to replace. So, I need to either only use copy and paste, not taking advantage of X and the clipboard managers, which also takes using another hand, or I would need to go to the address bar, remove its contents, and then either use the clipboard history to change the current pasted item. In an application other than the browser (FF and Chromium reset the address bar on focus, and like to select it all automatically), which is usually Kate or Scite, I would need to find what I wanted to replace, go find where I need to paste it, remove what is currently there, go back to where I want to copy from, select, then go back to where I want to paste to, and paste it (or, do the same thing with the history menu).

A more natural flow of events would be to copy from the source, locate the target, select it, and replace it via paste. OTOH, with a blank current selection, the last selection should be pasted, rather than last+1. If the paste mechanism could either check for a current selection, or compare the current selection to the most recent history item, and in either case move back one in the history to paste, then both explicit copy and paste and primary selection could be used together, without doing things like remapping the middle mouse button (which affects any other use of it).

v43 · 2013-03-08 21:56:50

sorry for bringing up an old thread, but i TOTALLY agree with the OP

so.. did you find a solution?

Trilby · 2013-03-08 23:52:16

v43, I can't speak for other forum members, but given that no one else responded, I'm guessing the problem/desire is no more clear to them than it was to me 7 months ago.

So the OP has presented an issue that is unsolved because it was not presented in a clear way, and you chose to chime in with only a "me too"? If you only wish to ask the OP, you could email them. If you wish to ask the forums, you really need to add clarification.

cfr · 2013-03-09 01:07:34

Can remapping the middle mouse button kill the copy/paste effect? I've tried to switch this off but never completely succeeded. I never thought of that approach...

drcouzelis · 2013-03-09 04:13:07

Oh man, I MUCH prefer the highlight-middle-click-paste method X, and really miss it when I use any other operating systems.

Are there specific use cases where this functionality bothers you? It only used to bother me in two scenarios: pasting a URL and pasting a topic into the Internet search box in Firefox. For the first one, I just started opening a new tab before pasting. For the second, I installed the "Clear Search 2" extension, that clears the box after using it.

cfr · 2013-03-09 23:26:29

I find that I accidentally paste random text when editing TeX source in Kile. At least, I assume I do. I don't notice until everything goes haywire and sometimes I don't notice at all which can be extremely embarrassing. If I could block the behaviour in Kile, that would be fine. However, since I don't use the functionality, a way to turn it off globally would do equally well.

I figure this may just be because I'm a refugee from elsewhere and this isn't part of what I learnt or what is now ingrained in my work habits.

drcouzelis · 2013-03-10 01:27:59

@cfr
Your post reminded me how flipping weird I am: I think I'm the only person in the world that wants a mouse that is wired, symmetrical, optical, three button, and no scroll wheel, just because I find the middle button so dang useful in X.

cfr · 2013-03-10 02:32:05

Maybe part of the problem is that my scroll wheel is also the third button. (I doubt my touchpad use is the problem as it is not that easy to get middle click to register by 3-finger tap although I guess the trackpoint button could get pressed. But the mouse seems the more likely. Either way, it happens all the time and is rather frustrating. Though it does only really happen in Kile. At least I managed to stop it copying everything I select to the clipboard...

Arch Linux

#1 2012-08-22 11:03:49

Age old problem: disable middle-mouse copy, but not paste, system-wide

#2 2012-08-22 11:31:06

Re: Age old problem: disable middle-mouse copy, but not paste, system-wide

#3 2012-08-22 13:41:50

Re: Age old problem: disable middle-mouse copy, but not paste, system-wide

#4 2012-08-22 13:50:51

Re: Age old problem: disable middle-mouse copy, but not paste, system-wide

#5 2012-08-22 14:43:19

Re: Age old problem: disable middle-mouse copy, but not paste, system-wide

#6 2013-03-08 21:56:50

Re: Age old problem: disable middle-mouse copy, but not paste, system-wide

#7 2013-03-08 23:52:16

Re: Age old problem: disable middle-mouse copy, but not paste, system-wide

#8 2013-03-09 01:07:34

Re: Age old problem: disable middle-mouse copy, but not paste, system-wide

#9 2013-03-09 04:13:07

Re: Age old problem: disable middle-mouse copy, but not paste, system-wide

#10 2013-03-09 23:26:29

Re: Age old problem: disable middle-mouse copy, but not paste, system-wide

#11 2013-03-10 01:27:59

Re: Age old problem: disable middle-mouse copy, but not paste, system-wide

#12 2013-03-10 02:32:05

Re: Age old problem: disable middle-mouse copy, but not paste, system-wide

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