4 ms·

>Same goes for the clipboard– hell if I know why MS would use that icon for paste, but in no other software that I can think of is that normal. That's easy. Wh

by gbeech 14y ago

>Same goes for the clipboard– hell if I know why MS would use that icon for paste, but in no other software that I can think of is that normal. That's easy. When you copy something you place it onto the clipboard, when you past it you are pulling a copy off the clipboard.

DavidAbrams 14y ago
Yep. It's a perfectly good word for the repository of copied items. What's the point in inventing a new term for something, when this one makes sense and is widely understood?
evoxed 14y ago
The only real issue I have with it is that it's no more about the clipboard than copy– they're both related but neither one is it. I think in this particular example it's not so obvious that anything is coming off the clipboard. I can see it's being taken off, but it's too subtle for a cursory glance especially if I'm not used to it. I suppose I don't really have a problem with the symbol, just the icon in particular.
shanselman 14y ago
I remember some instances of paste being an icon of an actual jar of paste.
- drewmclellan 14y ago
  I'm 32, and I'm not completely sure what an actual jar of paste is. I've certainly never seen one. Logically, I'm presuming it's used as a paper adhesive (like wallpaper paste). I'd use the verb "to glue". So "copy and paste" or "copy and glue". How does pasting go with copying? I copy something to the clipboard (...whatever) and then copy it from the clipboard to my document. How is that like gluing something? It really makes no sense. And then I remember cutting. "Cut and paste" makes more sense. You might cut something out of a magazine and glue it onto a collage. Okay. But the point is that none of this matters. "Paste" is a new word that means to copy something from your "clipboard" to the current location. It's not a metaphor anymore, it's a thing in its own right. A new definition for an old word.
  - dasil003 14y ago
    I'm the same age and I remember paste. More commonly we had rubber cement, do you remember that?
tripzilch 14y ago
I could imagine a "thought bubble", as used in cartoons, for the clipboard. Ok you'd have to be careful to distinguish it from a cloud icon (not very hard), but that would perfectly fit the metaphor in my head whenever I copy/paste: to have the computer "keep something in mind", remember something, strictly short-term memory of course.

by gbeech 14y ago

DavidAbrams 14y ago

Yep. It's a perfectly good word for the repository of copied items. What's the point in inventing a new term for something, when this one makes sense and is widely understood?

evoxed 14y ago

The only real issue I have with it is that it's no more about the clipboard than copy– they're both related but neither one is it. I think in this particular example it's not so obvious that anything is coming off the clipboard. I can see it's being taken off, but it's too subtle for a cursory glance especially if I'm not used to it. I suppose I don't really have a problem with the symbol, just the icon in particular.

shanselman 14y ago

I remember some instances of paste being an icon of an actual jar of paste.

drewmclellan 14y ago
I'm 32, and I'm not completely sure what an actual jar of paste is. I've certainly never seen one. Logically, I'm presuming it's used as a paper adhesive (like wallpaper paste). I'd use the verb "to glue". So "copy and paste" or "copy and glue". How does pasting go with copying? I copy something to the clipboard (...whatever) and then copy it from the clipboard to my document. How is that like gluing something? It really makes no sense. And then I remember cutting. "Cut and paste" makes more sense. You might cut something out of a magazine and glue it onto a collage. Okay. But the point is that none of this matters. "Paste" is a new word that means to copy something from your "clipboard" to the current location. It's not a metaphor anymore, it's a thing in its own right. A new definition for an old word.
- dasil003 14y ago
  I'm the same age and I remember paste. More commonly we had rubber cement, do you remember that?

tripzilch 14y ago

I could imagine a "thought bubble", as used in cartoons, for the clipboard. Ok you'd have to be careful to distinguish it from a cloud icon (not very hard), but that would perfectly fit the metaphor in my head whenever I copy/paste: to have the computer "keep something in mind", remember something, strictly short-term memory of course.