[wplug] multiple clipboard buffers & log (formerly of "Re: win4lin?")

[Luquilla Hughes]

     As you might have guessed I have been using emacs a lot recently. I 
have been reading "Sam's learn emacs in 24 hours". (which is not a bad read, 
I would not reccomend buying.) I have been using emacs at work, winXX 
platform, and only the top kill-buffer is available to the clipboard. I 
don't know if it is the same in X but I suspect so. Within emacs however 
multiple clipboards are used, You can continue to Yank from the kill-buffer 
till you get the one you want back.(I think the eight buffers mentioned 
earlier was a default and I assume like just about everything in Emacs{ and 
VI as I understand it} can be changed.)

     About the "a step further a complete logging of all changes", I believe 
this can be done from emacs also although not by default. It records your 
key strokes as you go. If you decide this or that was wrong you can undo 
until you are back to where you started. I am fairly certain that if desired 
an elisp could be written(if it hasn't been already) to do what you are 
talking about that would save every change made to a file.

    However not everyone would like to, or are ready to use emacs, I know 
the learning curve looked pretty devistating to me at first. If I did not 
really want to use it and had not emersed myself, I don't know if I would be 
using it to the extent I do now. I like it very much and I know I have yet 
to scratch the surface of it yet. But it would be a long time before I can 
imagine my mother learning emacs (and quite frankly, I have been told, it is 
a bit of a system hog). If you start using it I think that when you have to 
use other less powerfull editors (pico, joe, notepad, wordpad) you will 
truly miss some of the functionality Emacs provides.</rant>

>From: David Tessitor <dttessitor at home.com>
>Reply-To: wplug at wplug.org
>To: wplug at wplug.org
>Subject: [wplug] multiple clipboard buffers & log (formerly of "Re: 
>win4lin?")
>Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2000 18:31:55 -0500
>
>Beth Skwarecki asks:
>
> > What are the programs that you've seen implement multiple
>clipboards? I
> > haven't come across any myself.
>
> > David Tessitor wrote:
> > > (While we're at it, it would be nice to have several layers of
>clipboard
> > > buffering to hold multiple cuts without losing them.  I've come
>across a
> > > couple programs which allow that and it's a nice feature.  I've
>more than
> > > once wished it was in place when I've absentmindedly cut twice
>before
> > > pasting out the buffer and lost some recent writing before it
>was saved; it
> > > always seems to be from seeing a quick one or two word edit move
>and
> > > making it while in the middle of figuring just where I'm
>supposed to paste
> > > down the numerous paragraph move I've already cut -- ouch!)
>
>
>Luquilla Hughes mentions that Emacs has 8 such buffers.  I'm not
>sure where I saw it, but the number 8 was in my mind when I wrote of
>it so maybe that is what I was thinking of.   However, I don't use
>Emacs at all, so I would have had to have noticed it on a very
>cursory glance through a how-to or something.  I also seem to
>remember that I may have seen it before I started fooling around
>with Linux.  If so it was probably not a big name program and could
>be as far back as one of the CPM programs (PerfectWriter was one
>that I used).
>
>It's nice to know Emacs has that function.  The question is, does it
>work when cutting from and/or pasting to other program windows?  It
>would be nice to have something that could  be used between any
>program or window.  An automatic multiple clipboard functionality is
>somewhat similar in concept to having multiple desktops and
>workspaces.
>
>Beth's proposal is a very logical and workable extension of this
>line of thought.
>
>Beth Skwarecki wrote:
>
> > I would *really* like to see multiple clipboards. My temporary
>solution is
> > to use the mini-commander applet in my (GNOME) panel - it's a
>one-line
> > terminal, basically, but I also see it as a tiny text field that
>can hold a
> > bit of text. Does nothing for multiple paragraphs, of course, but
>before the
> > sticky-notes program started getting too obnoxious I was using
>that as
> > well.  I can't wait till somebody actually implements multiple
>clipboards.
> > I can see it being handled like suspended (ctrl-Z'd) processes -
>they're
> > automatically numbered for you, and then when you paste you get
>the
> > last one by default or can select (perhaps with modifier keys?)
>which
> > clipboard to paste from.
>
>-------
>
>A step further -- complete logging of all changes
>
>For the extremely anal retentive maybe in addition to multiple
>clipboard buffers there could also be an option that would save all
>buffered cuts,  moves, etc. to a special log file.
>
>Actually, this is not as outrageous as it sounds.  There are times
>when something that was not wanted and for which there was no place
>to use it was discarded, only later to come to mind as appropriate
>somewhere else.   This recording process could be in the form of a
>compacted log with referencing info of the file, of when, and of
>where the material was cut, copied, pasted or deleted.
>
>For near term purposes this could be reviewed when necessary to
>retrieve something.  It could also be used by writers, maybe even
>graphic artists, or in any professions where it is handy to be able
>to demonstrate to a paying customer just how much work was actually
>done.  For training purposes and self evaluation it would enable an
>analysis of the work process and possibly a means to make reasoned
>adjustments (e.g. rather than always starting out as such and such
>only to eventually go through a similar process and end up at the
>same particular point, maybe a few tactical changes could speed
>things up or produce better results).
>
>Also for the purposes of future historians, when the Shakespeares or
>Blakes of the coming millennium compose their masterpieces, there
>would again be a valuable record of their creative process for the
>academics to analyze.  We don't have as complete a record as
>historians would like to have, but when paper was the only medium in
>many cases a record of revision was preserved --- and, to many
>people's amazement, it usually demonstrates that rather than
>flawless inspiration, it was usually more a matter of hard work and
>repetitive rewriting that produced a classic gem.
>
>With wordprocessors we may have versioning capabilities either
>within a single file or by keeping multiple files, but we still do
>not have the same detail of process.  I can put something down in a
>hurry and completely revise it several times between saves such that
>even with frequent auto saves and auto backups the intermediary
>process is lost.  But on paper each of the first efforts and each
>later intermediary change is preserved by scratch marks, squiggles
>with arrows, and scribblings in margins or between lines -- the only
>thing lacking with the old paper trail is part of the sequencing
>and/or timing of the changes.  A continuous log could not only
>retain all the same information, thus returning a lost record we are
>now foregoing, but it could also add to it an understanding of the
>sequencing and time involved.   (As mentioned above such a detailed
>mirror of the process could prove invaluable for self-analysis in
>the present)
>
>Of course, some might worry about big brother or the Pointed Haired
>Bosses (PHB) looking over everyone's shoulder.  But really, the
>information saved would be only a little more than when paper was
>the medium by default.  Oh, for those who worry about consuming too
>much storage with all that information, how else are you going to
>fill up those 100 Gig IBM hard drives which John Dvorak expects by
>next summer will be for sale at under $100?
>
>Such logging might be readily possible with Linux right now, I don't
>know.  If it is, let me know.  I would be very interested in playing
>with it to see how it can best be utilized.
>
>David
>
>
>
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