Star didn't have cut/copy/paste. Instead it had ‘copy to’ and ‘move to’ operations on the current selection, more like today's drag-and-drop. Some influential people decided that invisible fragile clipboard state was better than a copy/move-in-progress state.
Ghost Cut – Or why Cut and Paste is broken everywhere
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Re: Ghost Cut – Or why Cut and Paste is broken everywhere
#12I think I have permanently broken my mental model of the clipboard. I’m always alternating between Linux, Mac and Windows and muscle memory invariably causes me to do the wrong key combo for the OS/app I’m using. Throw in clipboard sync/history tools etc which aren’t always reliable, I regularly paste and either nothing happens or it’s a previous copy of something. It sounds like a small thing but it’s maddening and mostly my own fault.
Re: Ghost Cut – Or why Cut and Paste is broken everywhere
#13Star didn't have cut/copy/paste. Instead it had ‘copy to’ and ‘move to’ operations on the current selection, more like today's drag-and-drop. Some influential people decided that invisible fragile clipboard state was better than a copy/move-in-progress state.
Probably was seen as too modal. Modal UI was very unfashionable for a while.
Re: Ghost Cut – Or why Cut and Paste is broken everywhere
#14At first I thought this was going to be the widely reported problem where despite copying something many times it still won't be there in the clipboard. I've even developed a habit of CTRL+C-ing half a dozen times from Chrome just to ensure it really worked.
Re: Ghost Cut – Or why Cut and Paste is broken everywhere
#15Every implementation is the same, and no spec exists, so how is it broken?
Re: Ghost Cut – Or why Cut and Paste is broken everywhere
#16Seems complicated. Doesn't selecting, then drag-and-drop do what the author wants?
My first thought as well. drag-and-drop is also fantastically useful for data you cannot Cut (e.g., moving an email attachment from one draft message to another)
Re: Ghost Cut – Or why Cut and Paste is broken everywhere
#17Agree accidentally clobbering the clipboard is super annoying. Clipboard history apps are a godsend. Like Paste on Mac, or Windows has it built in.
Re: Ghost Cut – Or why Cut and Paste is broken everywhere
#18want to thank the author of that post for giving me the opportunity to be thankful that I get to live my life without ever having to deal with the consequences of their opinions.
imagine having that guy as your roommate!
Re: Ghost Cut – Or why Cut and Paste is broken everywhere
#19Interesting take on such a simple action but such a frustrating one when it does not work they way you want.
Re: Ghost Cut – Or why Cut and Paste is broken everywhere
#20This reads to me as the default behavior of "cut" makes certain usability choices that don't gel with the author's personal mental model and workflow, which is of course totally valid. But it is odd to see things described as a "flaw" instead of a choice. The most glaring example seems to be the first: typically an accidental cut was intended to be a copy, not a delete, so leaving the text in your clipboard is a sens…
Yes, I disagree that the cited behavior is defective. But I respect his pointing-out of the shortcomings and offering other options.
I find myself using the clipboard-erasure "defect" somewhat frequently to cut something to the clipboard, and then undoing the change and using the clipboard contents. And this is specifically useful in a way that merely copying isn't... but at the moment I can't remember why, or whether I use this when programming or working around InDesign's many defects.