Using the Clipboard in Linux

Using the Clipboard in Linux

[Alex]

Greetings

I've written an application in windows that involves writing to the 
clipboard. I'm trying to write a version to work in Linux (Ubuntu 9.04 is 
what I'm developing on) and am struggling to get started with Florist.

Can anybody point me in the right direction of some good documentation. 
I've scoured the web but not found anything just yet - if anybody can 
suggest a good place to start then I'd really appreciate it.

Please note I'm not asking for code just somewhere which might have some 
documentation - e.g. tutorial or notes or anything really.

Many thanks

Alex

Re: Using the Clipboard in Linux

[Stephen Leake]

Alex <false_email@dontwantspam.com> writes:

> I've written an application in windows that involves writing to the 
> clipboard. I'm trying to write a version to work in Linux (Ubuntu 9.04 is 
> what I'm developing on) and am struggling to get started with Florist.

Linux the operating system kernel doesn't have a clipboard.

X Windows does, and particular window managers may have other
variations on it.

So you need to look in X Windows documentation, not Linux documentation.

-- 
-- Stephe

Re: Using the Clipboard in Linux

[Tero Koskinen]

On Sun, 08 Nov 2009 04:52:29 -0500 Stephen Leake wrote:

> Alex <false_email@dontwantspam.com> writes:
> 
> > I've written an application in windows that involves writing to the 
> > clipboard. I'm trying to write a version to work in Linux (Ubuntu 9.04 is 
> > what I'm developing on) and am struggling to get started with Florist.
> 
> Linux the operating system kernel doesn't have a clipboard.
> 
> X Windows does, and particular window managers may have other
> variations on it.
> 
> So you need to look in X Windows documentation, not Linux documentation.

Probably the easiest way is to use GtkAda and its clipboard methods:
http://www.adacore.com/wp-content/files/auto_update/gtkada-docs/gtkada_rm/gtkada_rm/gtk-clipboard.html

And please note that X Window System (which GtkAda uses) has two different
clipboards, PRIMARY and CLIPBOARD. (This mostly matters if you need to
communicate between two different programs via clipboard.)

-- 
Tero Koskinen - http://iki.fi/tero.koskinen/

Re: Using the Clipboard in Linux

[Alex]

On Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:55:19 +0200, Tero Koskinen wrote:

> On Sun, 08 Nov 2009 04:52:29 -0500 Stephen Leake wrote:
> 
>> Alex <false_email@dontwantspam.com> writes:
>> 
>> > I've written an application in windows that involves writing to the
>> > clipboard. I'm trying to write a version to work in Linux (Ubuntu
>> > 9.04 is what I'm developing on) and am struggling to get started with
>> > Florist.
>> 
>> Linux the operating system kernel doesn't have a clipboard.
>> 
>> X Windows does, and particular window managers may have other
>> variations on it.
>> 
>> So you need to look in X Windows documentation, not Linux
>> documentation.
> 
> Probably the easiest way is to use GtkAda and its clipboard methods:
> http://www.adacore.com/wp-content/files/auto_update/gtkada-docs/
gtkada_rm/gtkada_rm/gtk-clipboard.html
> 
> And please note that X Window System (which GtkAda uses) has two
> different clipboards, PRIMARY and CLIPBOARD. (This mostly matters if you
> need to communicate between two different programs via clipboard.)

Tero and Stephen

Thanks very much for your advice - it's a great help.

My application is using GTK anyway but for the windows version I used the 
Win32 API so I assumed that symmetrically I would need the Linux API to 
do the same on windows. Thanks for clearing that up - I should be able to 
crack on and effect the clipboard part of my application with GTK now.

I have to say that I've really found this group a helpful bunch - the Ada 
community really does seem a good crowd.

Thanks again chaps

Alex

Re: Using the Clipboard in Linux

[Stephen Leake]

Alex <false_email@dontwantspam.com> writes:

> My application is using GTK anyway but for the windows version I used the 
> Win32 API 

I don't understand; Gtk is available on Win32, and (should) provide
everything you need.

I guess you just didn't realize Gtk handled the clipboard?

-- 
-- Stephe

Re: Using the Clipboard in Linux

[Alex]

On Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:00:21 -0500, Stephen Leake wrote:

> Alex <false_email@dontwantspam.com> writes:
> 
>> My application is using GTK anyway but for the windows version I used
>> the Win32 API
> 
> I don't understand; Gtk is available on Win32, and (should) provide
> everything you need.
> 
> I guess you just didn't realize Gtk handled the clipboard?

I didn't realise that Gtk provided a clipboard access so I did it with 
the win32 api. I guess I can revisit that too.