SarahStrong
Sarah Strong
Contact information
Your Name: Sarah Strong
Email Address: sarah.e.strong@gmail.com
IRC nickname: aganice
Launchpad ID: sarahstrong
Skype username: sarah-strong
Webpage/blog: www.sarahstrong.110mb.com
College-University: University of Toronto
Major: Computer Science, Software Engineering Specialist
Please hold tight for more information once classes end April 1st.
Project
Project Name: The Great Clipboard Fixing Galore Project
Project Description:
Many popular Ubuntu apps have the problem that Copy/Paste doesn't work if the source is closed before the paste. It's a problem that's been reported and discussed at length, and there are several possible solutions
#1 Install a clipboard manager such as glipper, parcellite, or klipper by default
- It's going to be a hard sell to install a panel app with a robust history function to fix a problem with single selection copy/paste.
#2 Change the specification and xorg to correspond, so that applications are not required to explicitly request storage of their clipboard contents on quit.
- The way to implement this might be a hook on X quit that copies the selection from the quitting application into a special buffer - so sort of what klipper/glipper/do, but integrated into X and only done on application quit.
- It might create a performance problem
- Tt's been suggested many times without being changed, and this appears to be because there is a very good reason for leaving X's implementation as it is.
#3 Bring affected apps up to spec, so that they export their clipboard contents on exit as required by gnome-settings-daemon.
- The major objection to this solution is that it would be a big undertaking
- There would be no way to guarantee this problem didn't crop up in new apps
- Fixing the same problem in many different places sounds like poor design
On the other hand, this fix is exactly what the ClipboardManager spec expects from apps.
If you would be willing and able to do other projects instead, which ones?
I would certainly be willing to work on an alternate project, but I haven't put in the time to research any others thoroughly. I'm quite interested in the Berkman Centre's Open Net Initiative tester, for one.
Why did you like this idea?
It's a problem that affects every Ubuntu user and one that can cause loss of user data, which puts it at a pretty high severity rating in my opinion. At a technical level, I'd enjoy the challenge of implementing a fix in a wide variety of applications, each with their differing languages and architectures.