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by Mogzol 6 days ago
> 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?

3 comments

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?
> How can you be sure that the undo stack is in sync with the clipboard?

Simple: they're not meant to be. Undo stack and clipboard are orthogonal. It's like foundational rule of computing.

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.
Even windows has this software out of the box because it is so obviously useful
At least it would save you a keystroke every time, if it enables you to switch from cut+undo to copy.
I feel as though I’m reading the script to a Monty Python sketch.
Have you never copied, tried to paste and you pasted the wrong thing because copy failed?

Cut + undo, is copy with visual feedback

Copy and paste gives you visual feedback without reflowing the document. I also use it to intentionally add a marker in undo history in documents in not planning to change, as that way I can use the undo history to jump to different areas.
Where does Copy give you feedback that you actually copied something?
The paste action gives you feedback by having the cursor move to the end of the selected text after it replaces the text you copied with itself.

If you're on Android, lately it actually does give feedback by putting the copied text into the predictive text/autocomplete bar above the keyboard (I find this annoying as I'm usually copying text to save for later use, and I use the appearance of text I want in the corrections as an indication I've swiped wrong. If only I could touch-type while lying down...). In other apps that don't display the keyboard, it sometimes gives you a toast that an app has access the clipboard, though it gives the same toast for pasting or just for accessing it (eg pasting with termux or using an RDP app that syncs the clipboard)

That’s too late, if copy didn’t work or I copied the wrong part I have to go all the way back and select the part to copy again.

That’s why Ctrl-X, Ctrl-Z is the way

In Linux, if under XFCE, strangely by default, Clipman keeps a log of all text ever copied, in a giant textsrc file ( .cache/xfce4/clipman/textsrc )

That is kind of the opposite though, and more of a passive, almost furtive, indelible clipboard feedback. I was pretty astonished to find it, hovering somewhere near 4MB with years of content.