Re: Follow up about X clipboard

[Hongli Lai <h lai chello nl>]

Shaun McCance wrote:
> What about a 90% solution here?  Resource-hungry programs like GIMP or a
> full-featured sound or video editor are not the kinds or programs where
> users are likely to open a file, quickly look at something and copy it,
> and then close.  These are the sorts of applications that users leave
> open and work in all day.  The disappearing clipboard isn't likely to
> create an annoyance very often with programs like these.  (Although, in
> the few cases when it does, it's probably a bigger annoyance.)
>
> It is annoying with small transient applications.  You open gucharmap,
> find a character, copy, close, and try to paste.  You view the help for
> some application, copy something, close Yelp, and try to paste.  (Yeah,
> yeah, Yelp doesn't actaully have Copy hooked up.)  I think people would
> have far fewer objections to gucharmap hanging around than Gnumeric.
>
> This sort of leaves it up to the application developer to decide how
> people are using the application.  If it's a relatively small app, and
> users are likely to do a quick open-copy-close, then go ahead and hang
> around for a while if you've got the clipboard.
>
> It's not a complete solution, but it might just be "good enough".

I agree. It will solve the annoyances users have *right now*, which is 
also important. I think we've all figured out that a perfect solution is 
complex and will take a while to complete. I don't think there's 
anything wrong with coming up with a simpler 90% solution in the short 
term (and then eventually replacing it with the 100% solution).

Don't try to run before you can walk.