cut-paste with VNC on linux - 2 proposed changes

[Ron Goldman]

Hi. I'd like to propose 2 changes to the way that the Linux Xvnc server handles cut & paste to the VNC viewer app. I'd appreciate any feedback from other VNC users/developers. (Note: This only apply to the Linux version, the Mac & Windows versions are fine as is.)

1. Modify the Xvnc server so that it makes available for pasting new text that the user copies in the VNC viewer. Currently the text is only made available through X's cut buffer and so people resort to running helper apps like xcutsel or autocutsel. It only takes a small change to two files in the Xvnc code to do this properly.

(For those familiar with how X works, the change is to have the Xvnc server directly handle client requests for the selection when it is owned by the VNC viewer.)

2. Instead of Xvnc using the X primary selection (& cut buffer), have it use the clipboard. This seems more consistent with the way modern apps handle cut, copy & paste. (An old message in the GNOME archives gives more details on why this is a good idea: http://mail.gnome.org/archives/wm-spec-list/2000-November/ msg00020.html). This change just involves changing a few lines in the Xvnc code. Plus a few lines in the Linux vncviewer code.

Hopefully the effect of these two changes would be to make VNC on Linux behave more like what users naturally expect and eliminate the need for a FAQ answer (http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/faq.html#q25) explaining to them why cut & paste aren't working the way they should. (Note that even the FAQ refers to transferring the clipboard, and not the X primary selection....)

So what do people think about this? Comments?

-- Ron --
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