Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ukma!gatech!udel!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!wjh+
From: wjh+@andrew.cmu.edu (Fred Hansen)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: R3 Selection Mechanism
Message-ID: <IYRAu6W00VsP40aVt3@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: 20 May 89 02:33:42 GMT
References: <gYQFRmQGG047NGTW0K@athena.mit.edu>,
	<8905171601.AA22735@expire.lcs.mit.edu>
Organization: Information Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 59
In-Reply-To: <8905171601.AA22735@expire.lcs.mit.edu>

Bill Cattey wrote:

    The user interface is now non-intuitive.

and Bob Scheifler replied:

   Th[is] is a garbage argument.  The particular user interface chosen
for sample
   clients in R3 has next to nothing to do with the selection mechanism.
 If
   you disagree with the user interface, change it, or propose changes
to it.

This raises an obvious question:  

   If the selection mechanism says nothing about the user interface, 
   how do I use the selection mechanism to implement ATK cut/paste
protocol?

For those readers who are not familiar with ATK, the following may make
the 
problem clearer.  In ATK a user can "pick out" material in any window
and cause
it to "appear" elsewhere in that same or another ATK window.  In
addition, any of 
the last eight items picked out can be retrieved and caused to appear.

In ATK, "picking out" some material means to first select it and then
choose the
Cut or Copy operation.  Causing it to "appear" is done by selecting a
destination
and then choosing the Paste or Replace operation.  Getting back recently
cut 
material is done with the Rotate-Replace operation.  The material can be
any 
sort of object; currently implemented objects include raster, picture,
animation, 
text, spreadsheet cells, ....  It is not necessary for the recipient to
know 
beforehand what sort of object it is getting;  this is appropriate when
the 
recipient is just inserting whatever it gets into the destination chosen
by the user.


I have seen some wonderous things done with properties and selections in
X,
so I am issuing this challenge in hopes of learning even more.  Again,
the question is

    How can I use the selection mechanism to implement ATK cut/paste
protocol?

Fred Hansen

(412) 268-6788   wjh+@andrew.cmu.edu
BITNET: wjh+@andrew
for UUCP try: ...!psuvax1!andrew.cmu.edu!wjh
Omega say, "Enjoy the raspberries."