Emmanuele Bassi

Quick, tell me which selection will be pasted if I press the middle button of my mouse.

People either remember the '90s, where applications would only have one selection; or they remember when all they did was selecting text to and from the terminal and didn't have more than two windows. Once applications started retaining their own selected text, it was all over.

Jan 8 at 12:04pmWeb
Show threadEmmanuele BassiJan 8
You don't miss the '90s. Like Taylor Tomlinson put it: "what you miss is a time in your life where you didn't have a lot of responsibilities because nobody expected anything from you."
Show threadDiego CheirosoJan 8
@ebassi yeah I miss less responsibility
Show threadGary "grim" KramlichJan 8
@ebassi I miss this more than I can possibly express 😅
Show threadSwagtoyJan 8
@ebassi Wait, is it being removed (i don't keep up). I use middle click a lot.... The only thing i didn't like was that it used a second clipboard sometimes on x11 because x11 clipboard is cursed anyway.
Show threadEmmanuele BassiJan 8
@swags it's being disabled by default in GTK applications and anything that listens to the GTK settings
Show threadEmmanuele BassiJan 8
@swags Chrome will start listening to the GTK setting in the next release, and Firefox also may disable it by default (but still listen to the GTK setting)
Show threadSwagtoyJan 8
@ebassi Aw :( Well I'm gonna be a little bummed... but i sorta get it because its kinda a doohickey from the past. Worst case I'll patch it back cuz old habits die hard, but will there be a gsettings flag? (you mention gtk settings, so i assume so?)
Show threadEmmanuele BassiJan 8
@swags there's already a gsettings key; the change is from true to false: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gsettings-desktop-schemas/-/merge_requests/119
Disable primary-paste by default (!119) · Merge requests · GNOME / gsettings-desktop-schemas · GitLab

This is an X11ism, originally an xsetting 1 which frequently results is in unexpected behavior when people pressing the middle mouse button....

GitLab
Show threadSwagtoyJan 8
@ebassi Oh hell yeah, cool then 🙂 I guess it is kinda impressive that people are whining about a simple default settings change (that to be fair was legacy x11 jank [i think] to begin with) but hey its what it is.
Show threadPhilJan 8
@swags just for reference, it's also in tweaks and in the future maybe even in gnome settings.
Show threadSwagtoyJan 8
@Isofruit I think it would be good to have in gnome settings, at least. Middle click pasting is kind of an old unix doohickey, and while most people wont miss it, i imagine many are going to still gonna want that. hiding it in gsettings might not be ideal, maybe... :P
Show threadPhilJan 8
@swags Oh, they really do be tooting up a storm about this if the activity on #gnome related to it is anything to go by.
Show threadSwagtoyJan 8
@Isofruit i try to ignore what the internet en mass thinks. Probably for the best.
Show threadJeff Fortin T. (風の庭園のNekohayo)Jan 8
@swags @Isofruit There is a graphical toggle for it in the GNOME Tweaks app, it's been there for years, no terminal needed.
Show threadGary "grim" KramlichJan 8
@ebassi one of the things I caused to really use middle click paste for was opening urls in Firefox. I stopped using that years ago because the keyboard is faster...
Show threadEmmanuele BassiJan 8
@grimmy if an URL is not already linkified, select, right click, and Paste & Go is a great replacement; I'd rather applications implemented this, rather than re-implementing X11 selections
Show threadGary "grim" KramlichJan 8

@ebassi sure, but I'm personally in a tabbed am now so keyboard is much easier / faster for me now.

That said I wish more stuff would default to copying "clean links" and make paste special the exception not the norm. These are both things I'll be adding to @pidgin 3 at some point.

Show threadVal Packett 🧉Jan 8

@ebassi the real answer is "random bit of terminal WILL be accidentally pasted into IRC" xD

The fucked up thing is that I do have a habit of using "middle click" paste intentionally in the terminal, because it is fast, but then I end up accidentally pasting random crap into chats all the goddamn time 

(mostly because "middle click" means "three finger tap", I'll admit that it's harder to accidentally middle click a mouse, but I don't want to use a mouse for anything other than gaming and CAD)

Show threadDesert CamelJan 11
@valpackett Yeah, they should make scissors blunt because I regularly cut my fingers.
Show threadMonokaJan 8
Hi @ebassi, it pastes the last highlight and if there is no highlight it pulls the info from the clipboard. There is nothing more logic than that. As you have seen from hundreds of comments on several news sites and here in the Fediverse that people are loving and using this practical and useful feature. It is perceived as a strength of Linux systems and should be retained as default. If there are any problems with it, the problems should be addressed and not the feature itself deactivated.
Show threadEmmanuele BassiJan 8

@GerryT "it pastes the last highlight": good luck finding it in multiple windows with their highlight.

But, now, seriously: I beg you to give up, before I block you.

Show threadMonokaJan 8

Hi @ebassi, the use case that you describe doesn't exist. There isn't really a risk that the user forgets the last highlight before middle-click paste. It's usually seconds between highlighting and pasting, because this feature saves time and clicks (2 clicks instead of 6), that's why people love it.

Also seriously: Please point to a place where there can be an honest discussion about this feature, with evidence/points. The pull request is blocked. Where is it possible to properly discuss it?

Show threadPixel PurritoJan 9
@ebassi side quest: tell which selection will be pasted by Ctrl-V. Showing only a screenshot without telling in which window one made a copy operation last also doesn't indicate what's in the clipboard either 🤷
Show threadEmmanuele BassiJan 9
@aperezdc except one is a specific command that does not risk getting replaced when focus changes or you can forget about it, while the other is an implicit one that does
Show threadPixel PurritoJan 9
@ebassi indeed, and I'm definitely not against switching the default; but I feel like the screenshot argument wasn't that clear. That's all 
Show threadDesert CamelJan 11
@ebassi The one I selected just a second ago to paste somewhere else. Are people really middle click pasting everywhere? Also I came here just to say that GNOME is volunteer driven project but first thing the merge request do is stop community from discussion and why they want or don't want the said "feature".
Show threadEmmanuele BassiJan 11
@desertcamel “the community” of onlookers don’t get to comment on code, especially on platforms that don’t allow for strict moderation like GitLab’s merge requests. That’s what Discourse is for. Also: good luck with pasting stuff after you selected some text a week ago on a browser tab that you forgot about.
Show threadDesert CamelJan 11
@ebassi They don't get to comment on code, true, but communities input should at least be considered for the change to default. Also what happened on discourse today? thread got locked. So no more input from community on change? We don't hate volunteers and we have respect for what they do, but locking out community doesn't send right message.