3 ms·

> changing Windows 95 so that it installed the Ctrl+C hotkey handler only when a clipboard paste operation was active, My understanding of the windows clipboar

> changing Windows 95 so that it installed the Ctrl+C hotkey handler only when a clipboard paste operation was active, My understanding of the windows clipboard is that at boot time, the clipboard was empty, but at any other time the clipboard would retain the last thing copied. That presumably means this game would work after a fresh boot, but any other time the game wouldn't get past level 58. Doesn't sound fixed to me.

wmil 3y ago
I think there are two Ctrl+C actions. The normal copy, which wouldn't be active for an ms-dos application. However there's a second Ctrl+C to cancel a long paste operation. Pasting in Windows / Mac is more complex than most devs these days realize, you can copy vector graphics between MS Office and Adobe Illustrator and it will work out a transfer format. Being able to cancel a long paste was an important feature.
michaelt 3y ago
It's a long time since I've pasted something into a Windows 95 DOS terminal, but I don't think it worked the way you're thinking. IIRC by default you couldn't just select text with the mouse - as DOS had never had mouse support, and didn't really have the concept of text being selected. You had to click a particular button to activate text selection before it was possible to copy. The GUI looked like this: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Microsoft_Windows_95_Version_4.00.1111_command.com_MS-DOS_Prompt_492x259.png https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Microsoft_Windows_95... you'll note there's a toolbar at the top; the dotted square to the right of the 'Auto' dropdown let you select text, then the copy and paste buttons to the right of that let you copy and paste. You'll note that, with no text selected, the copy button is greyed out. I am confused by the article, though - Ctrl+C is famous as the copy key combination, and yet apparently it's the 'cancel active paste' key combination? - so perhaps someone with an even better memory will correct me :)
- bombcar 3y ago
  I suspect “paste” was more “simulate keyboard strokes that produce the text” in which case that could take a notable amount of time if you had a paragraph in the clipboard.
  - willcipriano 3y ago
    It is, you could mess it up if it lost focus if I recall.

wmil 3y ago

I think there are two Ctrl+C actions. The normal copy, which wouldn't be active for an ms-dos application. However there's a second Ctrl+C to cancel a long paste operation. Pasting in Windows / Mac is more complex than most devs these days realize, you can copy vector graphics between MS Office and Adobe Illustrator and it will work out a transfer format. Being able to cancel a long paste was an important feature.

michaelt 3y ago

It's a long time since I've pasted something into a Windows 95 DOS terminal, but I don't think it worked the way you're thinking. IIRC by default you couldn't just select text with the mouse - as DOS had never had mouse support, and didn't really have the concept of text being selected. You had to click a particular button to activate text selection before it was possible to copy. The GUI looked like this: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Microsoft_Windows_95_Version_4.00.1111_command.com_MS-DOS_Prompt_492x259.png https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Microsoft_Windows_95... you'll note there's a toolbar at the top; the dotted square to the right of the 'Auto' dropdown let you select text, then the copy and paste buttons to the right of that let you copy and paste. You'll note that, with no text selected, the copy button is greyed out. I am confused by the article, though - Ctrl+C is famous as the copy key combination, and yet apparently it's the 'cancel active paste' key combination? - so perhaps someone with an even better memory will correct me :)

bombcar 3y ago
I suspect “paste” was more “simulate keyboard strokes that produce the text” in which case that could take a notable amount of time if you had a paragraph in the clipboard.
- willcipriano 3y ago
  It is, you could mess it up if it lost focus if I recall.