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by robotresearcher 3153 days ago
On the Mac desktop copy and paste has long (always?) worked with file & folder icons, i.e. objects.
2 comments
rudedogg 3153 days ago
I think the parent is talking about that behavior, but extended throughout the entire OS. You can see this in some apps, one that comes to mind is Sketch and its concept of "symbols".

I think the complaint is that copy/cut/paste was weak in the beginning, and generally just worked with plain text. This weakened the metaphor to where now we don't expect much else, but it could have been much more powerful.

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agumonkey 3153 days ago
I believe it was a per application design. File explorer could copy folder and files (windows too). But you can't copy anything out of the box.
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robotresearcher 3153 days ago
The macOS Finder comes in the box. Copy paste a file icon to replicate a file. I just tried it and it works.
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agumonkey 3153 days ago
can you copy an application ? a window ? a structured paragraph ?
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lostlogin 3153 days ago
Yes to an app, no to a window and I don’t know what a structured paragraph is. I can’t explain how but being able to copy a window seems like it would break the metaphor.
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robotresearcher 3153 days ago
An application (*.app), yes. Window, no. Structured paragraph, yes.

Shrug.

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