Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att-cb!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!apollo!oj
From: oj@apollo.uucp (Ellis Oliver Jones)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Selections, Targets, Properties, Atoms ?
Message-ID: <3b170d54.d5b2@apollo.uucp>
Date: 26 Mar 88 21:07:00 GMT
Organization: Apollo Computer, Chelmsford, Mass.
Lines: 22

When issuing an XConvertSelection request, is it OK to use the
same Atom to name the selection, and to name the property
into which the selection's value is to be stored?  That is,
can I do

  XConvertSelection ( dpy, XA_PRIMARY, XA_STRING, XA_PRIMARY, 
                      mywindow, timestamp );

Similarly, is it OK to use the target (data type) Atom as a property name?

On a slightly different topic, if the owner of a selection receives
a SelectionRequest event asking it to convert a selection to an unknown
target (meaning a target type that the owner doesn't recognize), 
is it OK for the owner to translate to some arbitrary fallback target type (such as
XA_STRING), then return the fallback target to the requestor in the SelectionNotify
event?

From the protocol spec. and Xlib, it looks like these operations should work.
Do they violate conventions?

Regards,
/Ollie Jones