Re: [Patch] A clipboard daemon for gnome-settings-daemon

[Mario Vukelic <mario vukelic dantian org>]

On Sam, 2003-09-06 at 12:20, Hongli Lai wrote:

> If you copy a 10 MB file in Wordpad and you close it then that 10 MB stays in 
> memory. Windows is no different.

I know


> That's not the clipboard asking you to clear it, that's the application asking 
> you to clear it. If the application doesn't implement explicit code to clear 
> the clipboard, the data will stay in memory. 

I see, didn't know that.

> Why would 1 MB be too much? The size of the clipboard is only limited by your 
> RAM as far as I know.

I know it's only limited by RAM. That's what I meant. I did not say 1 MB
is too much, you did :) I probably misunderstood what you were saying.
You said "If an application puts more than 1 MB of data in the clipboard
then either that application is broken or the user is doing something
wrong".

I'm just objecting to the idea that the user is doing something wrong.
The user is doing what he does and will do if there is a usable good
clibboard. If Gnome provides a good clipboard, the user will use it in
this way, and then I don't see what he's doing "wrong". It's the system
that is wrong if it invites the user to do something and then can't
handle it.

I only am afraid when I read your phrasing:
> > because when I read "when the user does this, app x is not at fault" it
> > usually means
> > the user is left in the dark and on his own (he should /know/ what he
> > does is stupid, shouldn't he),


> Frankly I find it a little hard to believe that a user would not be aware of 
> the fact that he has just copied 20 MB of data to the clipboard, if he opens 
> a 20 MB text file and do Select All + Copy.

You have never worked in a non-geek setting? The general user does not
know what a "clipboard" is, what "RAM" is and how it is different from
persistent storage. He does immediately forget that he has selected 20
MB and copied it to the clipboard, because the whole concept has never
entered his consciousness in the first place. Users will scan pages in
1200x1200 dpi in 24 bit and try to send the resulting 300 MB file by
email, and then call support. They have no concept of a "MB" and how the
file size they see in the file manager relates to their RAM size,
because they don't know that stuff that's loaded goes into their RAM in
the first place. Believe me, been there, done that.


> I don't understand what you're saying. Are we still talking about the same 
> thing? This daemon keeps the data of the clipboard in memory, and that's 
> pretty much it.

As I said, I maybe misunderstood you. The thread was about huge
clipboard sizes in klipper, and you said that a user who copies > 1 MB
to the clipboard is doing something "wrong": I only object to the notion
he's doing something wrong, he's doing what the clipboard is there for,
and when he has enough RAM there's nothing wrong with copying > 1 MB to
the clipboard. Of course when he copies a lot, he will need a lot of
space in RAM, bit it's not wrong per se

Kind regards, M