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Ghost Cut – Or why Cut and Paste is broken everywhere

ishmael.textualize.io

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Re: Ghost Cut – Or why Cut and Paste is broken everywhere

#51

Post by Wowfunhappy »

drdexebtjl wrote: post #48
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can cut from app A, switch to app B, cut something else from app B, then go back to app A and undo the cut. ...right, thanks. So you could still make it work but you'd definitely need OS support, it's not something one app can fix. Edit: You could make this work on an app level by checking if the contents of the user's clipboard is still the value they cut. If yes, revert to whatever clipboard contents you save…

What would be in the clipboard after the undo in that scenario? edit: Yeah, the problem is that the user does not expect undo to do something different depending on what they did on a different program. Undo doing nothing to the clipboard always is more consistent and the better UX.

...yeah. But I still think these problems apply to Ghost Cut too. Unless the idea is that Ghost Cut only works within one app and/or the content lives in a special ghostboard separate from the clipboard, which I think is equally bad UX.

Re: Ghost Cut – Or why Cut and Paste is broken everywhere

#52

Post by thomastjeffery »

Copy and cut are just redundant steps anyway. In Linux (generally), you can simply middle click to copy the current selection. Maybe we could add shift+middle click (or something) to do a move instead of copy.

The deeper underlying problem is that we treat arbitrary UI/UX implementations as objective truth. There is one decided way your computer can be interacted with, and you the user must accommodate it. This is what I want to change.

Re: Ghost Cut – Or why Cut and Paste is broken everywhere

#53

Post by [deleted] »

Mogzol wrote: post #34
blt wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really natural! - make a bunch of edits - decide I don't like all of them - copy the part I want to keep - undo a bunch - paste the good part This is copy, not cut, but it wouldn't work if the clipboard state was part of the undo system.

The article isn't arguing that clipboard state should be part of the undo system, it is arguing that cut shouldn't touch clipboard state. In the "Side effects" section they mention if you want the contents to go to the clipboard, then you should use copy instead of cut.

[deleted]

Re: Ghost Cut – Or why Cut and Paste is broken everywhere

#54

Post by david422 »

Cockbrand wrote: post #47
cush wrote: post #17

Agree accidentally clobbering the clipboard is super annoying. Clipboard history apps are a godsend. Like Paste on Mac, or Windows has it built in.

The Mac now has a clipboard history as well, it's just a bit awkward. You can open Spotlight with ⌘Space, and within Spotlight open the clipboard manager with ⌘4.

I used to use a 3rd party clipboard (until blocked by work) that used Cmd-Shift-V to bring up the clipboard. So much nicer than Apple's solution.

Re: Ghost Cut – Or why Cut and Paste is broken everywhere

#55

Post by nkrisc »

jubilanti wrote: post #39
sharkjacobs wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I often cut + undo because seeing the cut is feedback which tells me the operation successfully put the content into clipboard. This is not always a guarantee especially in web apps, and sometimes I just have focus on the wrong window.

Have you used a clipboard manager? There are tons that you can configure with notifications and indicators, so you don't have to that.

Having to install yet more software seems worse than the problem you’re suggesting it should solve.

Re: Ghost Cut – Or why Cut and Paste is broken everywhere

#57

Post by [deleted] »

Mogzol wrote: post #32
throwawayffffas wrote: post #22

Cut and Paste is three operations. Cut is two operations copy and delete, copy is never undone by undo it should not be undone when you cut either. I cut, undo, ..., undo, and paste multiple times a day. It's a feature not a bug. > Cut & Paste is not atomic Yes because it's two different actions. What does "Ghost Cut" do if you paste multiple times? Paste the cut text first and then what? The previous thing in your c…

> I cut, undo, ..., undo, and paste multiple times a day. Why would you cut + undo as opposed to just copy? Are they not the same operation at that point?

[deleted]

Re: Ghost Cut – Or why Cut and Paste is broken everywhere

#58

Post by mjmsmith »

sharkjacobs wrote: post #36
Mogzol wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I cut, undo, ..., undo, and paste multiple times a day. Why would you cut + undo as opposed to just copy? Are they not the same operation at that point?

I often cut + undo because seeing the cut is feedback which tells me the operation successfully put the content into clipboard. This is not always a guarantee especially in web apps, and sometimes I just have focus on the wrong window.

How can you be sure that the undo stack is in sync with the clipboard? Wouldn't cut+paste be a more reliable pseudo-copy than cut+undo?

Re: Ghost Cut – Or why Cut and Paste is broken everywhere

#59

Post by trgn »

I consider myself reasonably competent, reached conventional milestones in a career in tech, did a thing here and there, and I'm reading this, sort of nodding along, and barely understand what's the issue again with cut&paste, there was one, which one ?, anyway, middle age you guys, it's real.

Re: Ghost Cut – Or why Cut and Paste is broken everywhere

#60

Post by 30minAdayHN »

cush wrote: post #17

Agree accidentally clobbering the clipboard is super annoying. Clipboard history apps are a godsend. Like Paste on Mac, or Windows has it built in.

I came here to exactly comment about this. I use Maccy and it is godsend. It is single most valuable productivity hack.

I first encountered clipboard history in Jetbrains Rubymine editor

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