Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!bloom-beacon!EXPO.LCS.MIT.EDU!rws
From: rws@EXPO.LCS.MIT.EDU (Bob Scheifler)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: stupid question about selections
Message-ID: <9010071407.AA10307@expo.lcs.mit.edu>
Date: 7 Oct 90 14:07:53 GMT
References: <1990Oct7.021144.18786@oracle.com>
Sender: root@athena.mit.edu (Wizard A. Root)
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 19


    How is it possible to make persistent the data
    associated with a property?

I assume you mean selection, not property.  Selections are not persistent,
they are tied to the lifetime of the owner.  They can be made "persistent"
by transferring them to a "persistent" owner.  An example of this is the
CLIPBOARD mechanism, see the ICCCM for details.  But this "persistence"
has its cost in reducing/eliminating the available dynamic type conversions.

    Transferring ownership of the selection to the root window doesn't seem
    to work.

Selections are owned by clients, not windows.  (The merits of having a window
additionally associated with the selection can be debated.)  In order to
"transfer to the root window", you would have to choose a representation and
store the data as a property on the root window, and then look for such a
property when restarting.  Applications wanting to get "the selection" would
have to be coded to try a real selection and then fall back to a property.