cutting from outside maple and pasting into maple-- why so difficult?

[William Unruh]

I am running maple (9.5 and 2016) on Mageia 5/6 Linux machines. Sometimes I
want to cut something (left mouse button and then drag over the desired text)
from say a text file outside of maple, and paste (middle click) into
maple. It does not work. Maple seems to be using a different buffer than than
most X programs do. Such cutting and pasting works within maple, but if I try
the above what is pasted into maple is the last thing I cut from within maple.
I can do it by opening say xedit or nedit window, cutting from the file I want,
pasting into that editor, cutting from that editor and then pasting into
maple. But that is a really ponderous way of doing things.

[David W. Hodgins]

While I don't know the answer off hand, to get any help more info will
likely be needed.

As Mageia doesn't have a package called maple, given the newsgroups
selected, I'm guessing the maple software is from
https://www.maplesoft.com
Best to specify exactly which program they offer that is being used.

While X does provide clipboard functions, most of the desktop environments
have their own clipboard management. Which environment is being used, kde,
gnome, mate, xfce, enlightment, lxde, lxqt, cinnamon, etc.?

Most likely the solution will be switching to a desktop environment that
only uses the X clipboard, rather then it's own.

It's also possible that maple has been written to work with an environment
that is unique to a specific desktop's clipboard features.

The output of "ldd /usr/bin/maple" (with the correct path and binary
name) can help indicate which gui it's written to use (gtk, qt, etc.).

Regards, Dave Hodgins

--
Change dwho...@nomail.afraid.org to davidw...@teksavvy.com for
email replies.

[dillinger]

No real solution from me either but perhaps a little less ponderous
workaround:
I've found that copying text and then pasting it into a terminal doesn't
always work. I'm using Clipman as a workaround on Xfce. The copied text
does show up in the list of Clipman and after selecting it in that list
it can be pasted into a terminal. Clipman (xfce4-clipman-plugin) lives
in the Xfce panel and keeps track of your last clipboard entries.

[HASM]

William Unruh <un...@invalid.ca> writes:

> I am running maple (9.5 and 2016) on Mageia 5/6 Linux machines. Sometimes I
> want to cut something (left mouse button and then drag over the desired text)
> from say a text file outside of maple, and paste (middle click) into
> maple. It does not work.

Maybe try: https://www.nongnu.org/autocutsel/

-- HASM

[William Unruh]

On 2018-07-30, David W. Hodgins <dwho...@nomail.afraid.org> wrote:
> On Mon, 30 Jul 2018 11:18:11 -0400, William Unruh <un...@invalid.ca> wrote:
>
>> I am running maple (9.5 and 2016) on Mageia 5/6 Linux machines. Sometimes I
>> want to cut something (left mouse button and then drag over the desired text)
>> from say a text file outside of maple, and paste (middle click) into
>> maple. It does not work. Maple seems to be using a different buffer than than
>> most X programs do. Such cutting and pasting works within maple, but if I try
>> the above what is pasted into maple is the last thing I cut from within maple.
>> I can do it by opening say xedit or nedit window, cutting from the file I want,
>> pasting into that editor, cutting from that editor and then pasting into
>> maple. But that is a really ponderous way of doing things.
>
> While I don't know the answer off hand, to get any help more info will
> likely be needed.
>
> As Mageia doesn't have a package called maple, given the newsgroups
> selected, I'm guessing the maple software is from
> https://www.maplesoft.com
> Best to specify exactly which program they offer that is being used.

The program is xmaple, a script to run their program maple in an X window
rather than text based. The versions are 9.5 (yes a really ancient version)
and 2016 ( a recent version) This cut and paste behavnour has been a feature
for many ,many years.

>
> While X does provide clipboard functions, most of the desktop environments
> have their own clipboard management. Which environment is being used, kde,
> gnome, mate, xfce, enlightment, lxde, lxqt, cinnamon, etc.?

kde/plasma

>
> Most likely the solution will be switching to a desktop environment that
> only uses the X clipboard, rather then it's own.
>
> It's also possible that maple has been written to work with an environment
> that is unique to a specific desktop's clipboard features.

I do not think so, but do not have enough info to know.

>
> The output of "ldd /usr/bin/maple" (with the correct path and binary
> name) can help indicate which gui it's written to use (gtk, qt, etc.).

I suspect it is their own implimentation of X.
No indication in the libraries that it is calling any gui software.

>
> Regards, Dave Hodgins
>

[jfh]

I have no trouble with either xmaple 2017 or just maple (the command-line version which starts by saying Maple 2017 (X86 64 LINUX). The former gives prettier graphics, the latter makes my errors easier to catch. I often cut and paste, usually with an emacs window containing the input file and an (x)maple window showing what Maple did with it.

[Doug Laidlaw]

To me, this sounds like a problem in maple, and nothing to do with any
Linux distro:

>
> Maple seems to be using a different buffer than than
> most X programs do.

Get Maple to fix their program.

Doug.

[William Unruh]

And they will point their finger at linux which leaves me up shit creek.

So what I am trying to determine is where the problem lies. If I cut from
nedit or xedit, it pastes into Maple just fine. If I cut from say konsole
terminal it does not paste at all. This says that IN LINUX cutting from
Konsole and nedit are treated differently. Eg, one possibility is that there
are two different and distinct buffers. THAT is a linux "problem".
(by "cut" I mean "Hold down left button and drag over some text")

So, one part of my question is-- Do others on other distributions of Linux
notice the same problem? If not then it is a Mageia problem. If so, then it
is a problem with Linux in general.

Note that it also works in the opposite directi, if I cut in Maple, I cannot
paste into Konsole, or nedit. It pasts instead what I cut previously from say
Konsole. So:

cut from Konsole, paste into nedit. Cannot paste into Maple.
cut from nedit, paste into Konsole AND into Maple.
cut from Maple, paste into Maple, but not into Konsole or nedit.

So, nedit seems to be like type O blood, a universal doner. (but accepts only
from Konsole. ) Konsole and Maple seem to be like types A and B blood --
cannot accept from or give to each other. What is going on behind the scenes
in Linux that any programs could behave this way.

>
> Doug.

[Bit Twister]

On Wed, 1 Aug 2018 15:56:10 -0000 (UTC), William Unruh wrote:
> On 2018-08-01, Doug Laidlaw <laid...@hotkey.net.au> wrote:

>> Get Maple to fix their program.
>
> And they will point their finger at linux which leaves me up shit creek.
>
> So what I am trying to determine is where the problem lies. If I cut from
> nedit or xedit, it pastes into Maple just fine. If I cut from say konsole
> terminal it does not paste at all. This says that IN LINUX cutting from
> Konsole and nedit are treated differently. Eg, one possibility is that there
> are two different and distinct buffers. THAT is a linux "problem".
> (by "cut" I mean "Hold down left button and drag over some text")

I would say if X11 complaint apps (nedit, xedit, xterm,..) work and
Konsole does not then it is an application/DE problem.

I have noticed that in some apps I have to use the application's cut/paste
keys instead of mouse buttons for content transfer.

[Jim Beard]

I find that ability copy/cut and paste using the mouse varies, depending
on from where and to where I am trying to copy/cut and paste. That is
under Gnome 3 desktop, but in times long past I have had similar behavior
with kde and Gnome 2.

I surmise that the console window and X11 use different buffers, and that
applications may have their own buffers. I have found that Cntl-c after
highlighting the text and pasting with Cntl-v will sometimes work when
just attempting to paste with middle-mouse button will not. It also may
depend on the "console" window I use. Usually I just use the mlterm
window but sometimes use aterm or xterm. Behavior varies among them.

There is a little program /sbin/gpm that allows use of the mouse in run
level three. I rarely use it because it slows response time noticeably.
It allows you to do more things with the mouse but it too has its own
quirks, if I remember correctly.

Cheers!

jim b.

--
UNIX is not user-unfriendly, it merely expects users to be computer-
friendly.

[HASM]

William Unruh <un...@invalid.ca> writes:

Not sure whether it still works (and don't have maple to try it)
but I used to run autocutsel for this problem:
https://www.nongnu.org/autocutsel/

Then, as suggested here:
https://blog.nelhage.com/2008/09/autocutsel/
run these
autocutsel -fork
autocutsel -selection PRIMARY -fork
to sync all those cut options.

-- HASM

[William Unruh]

OK, even the description on the first of those links is helpful. I verifies
that there are three (actually even more) cutbuffers, and in general
they are not synchronized.
Thanks

>
> -- HASM

[HASM]

William Unruh <un...@invalid.ca> writes:

>> Not sure whether it still works (and don't have maple to try it)
>> but I used to run autocutsel for this problem:
>> https://www.nongnu.org/autocutsel/

> verifies that there are three (actually even more) cutbuffers, and in
> general they are not synchronized.

Long ago, on my HP-UX box, I used to have a program that showed all cut
buffers owners, contents, etc. Can't remember whether it allow editing,
copying them, etc, on the fly. I may still have it somewhere, if it was
something I compiled myself from posted sources.

-- HASM