5 ms·

Why would I press a key to copy/paste? Highlight text, then middle click

jagger27 6y ago
Muscle memory, no middle click on most trackpads. It just feels weird coming from a browser after using Control+C to copy something and then having to use Control+Shift+V to paste. I never got used to the right click to paste paradigm. I expect a context menu.
- iso1210 6y ago
  I've never used a non-mac laptop without a middle button. Muscle memory and 'the way things work' works both ways. You have to jump through hoops to do basic things like focus-follows-mouse/raise on click, multiple desktops, alt-drag to move a window etc (to be honest I'm not sure if you can even do those on a mac)
  - jagger27 6y ago
    ThinkPads are what I reach for on the PC side of things, and those still have a dedicated middle button for the most part. Otherwise I can't think of a single modern example of a laptop with a middle button. They're all click pads these days like Macs.
    - folmar 6y ago
      The standard unix 3rd button emulation is left+right click at the same time. Should work pretty much everywhere without configuration.
      - magikaram 6y ago
        In the case of "tap to click", a 3 finger tap would also emulate this, or as a middle mouse click.
- fsflover 6y ago
  > no middle click on most trackpads If your trackpad has multitouch, triple touch should correspond to the middle click. Works for me on Linux by default.
racingmars 6y ago
Because often I need to highlight text in the terminal, copy it, then highlight text somewhere else (e.g. in a text input field in a browser, the address bar in the browser, etc.) and paste over it. Selecting the specific destination text I want to overwrite blows away my previous selection. In many cases I do just highlight and right-click where I want the text pasted. But that workflow doesn't work a large portion of the time and I need a clipboard that isn't being wiped out almost any time I click on something.
- losvedir 6y ago
  > Selecting the specific destination text I want to overwrite blows away my previous selection. Oof, is this the normal Linux behavior? That sounds annoying. In MacOS every app (or even tab) has its own separate highlight that it maintains. So in your example, selecting text in the browser would leave the terminal unaffected, and when you bring the terminal back to the foreground your text is still highlighted.
  - alanbernstein 6y ago
    The highlight doesn't vanish, the clipboard contents do, because that's global and it gets written on highlight.
    - majewsky 6y ago
      Nitpick: You're talking about the primary selection, not the clipboard. Those are two different distinct things.
      - alanbernstein 6y ago
        It doesn't surprise me to learn that at all, because I've been confused about having two clipboards in Linux. But I don't remember hearing the term "primary selection" - my interpretation of the behavior was that there are just two separate clipboards. I guess that's not accurate - why not?
- 6y ago

Muscle memory, no middle click on most trackpads. It just feels weird coming from a browser after using Control+C to copy something and then having to use Control+Shift+V to paste. I never got used to the right click to paste paradigm. I expect a context menu.

iso1210 6y ago
I've never used a non-mac laptop without a middle button. Muscle memory and 'the way things work' works both ways. You have to jump through hoops to do basic things like focus-follows-mouse/raise on click, multiple desktops, alt-drag to move a window etc (to be honest I'm not sure if you can even do those on a mac)
- jagger27 6y ago
  ThinkPads are what I reach for on the PC side of things, and those still have a dedicated middle button for the most part. Otherwise I can't think of a single modern example of a laptop with a middle button. They're all click pads these days like Macs.
  - folmar 6y ago
    The standard unix 3rd button emulation is left+right click at the same time. Should work pretty much everywhere without configuration.
    - magikaram 6y ago
      In the case of "tap to click", a 3 finger tap would also emulate this, or as a middle mouse click.
fsflover 6y ago
> no middle click on most trackpads If your trackpad has multitouch, triple touch should correspond to the middle click. Works for me on Linux by default.

racingmars 6y ago

Because often I need to highlight text in the terminal, copy it, then highlight text somewhere else (e.g. in a text input field in a browser, the address bar in the browser, etc.) and paste over it. Selecting the specific destination text I want to overwrite blows away my previous selection. In many cases I do just highlight and right-click where I want the text pasted. But that workflow doesn't work a large portion of the time and I need a clipboard that isn't being wiped out almost any time I click on something.

losvedir 6y ago
> Selecting the specific destination text I want to overwrite blows away my previous selection. Oof, is this the normal Linux behavior? That sounds annoying. In MacOS every app (or even tab) has its own separate highlight that it maintains. So in your example, selecting text in the browser would leave the terminal unaffected, and when you bring the terminal back to the foreground your text is still highlighted.
- alanbernstein 6y ago
  The highlight doesn't vanish, the clipboard contents do, because that's global and it gets written on highlight.
  - majewsky 6y ago
    Nitpick: You're talking about the primary selection, not the clipboard. Those are two different distinct things.
    - alanbernstein 6y ago
      It doesn't surprise me to learn that at all, because I've been confused about having two clipboards in Linux. But I don't remember hearing the term "primary selection" - my interpretation of the behavior was that there are just two separate clipboards. I guess that's not accurate - why not?
6y ago