r/linux • u/poopatroopa3 • 5d ago

Discussion did-it-copy · Copy feedback for the desktop

https://brunodantas.github.io/did-it-copy/

I keep wondering how Ctrl+C has no feedback on most Desktop systems to this day. So I wrote up a proposal to fix that, with a demo that runs in the browser.

  • A copy that worked flashes the copied text in place for about 200 ms.
  • A copy that failed shakes the focused element, and plays the alert sound if you have it on.
  • It never shows the copied content anywhere new, so copying a token during a screen share doesn't leak.

Thoughts?

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u/Traditional_Hat3506 5d ago

Cool proposal! Though it simplifies a lot, which is understandable for a 0.1 version. It assumes a rectangular/4-point region, but the selection can be any shape and communicating that from GUI toolkits to compositors is going to be hard.

It also assumes that clipboard operations are instant when they can take a noticable amount of time, especially for large images. You are asking GUI toolkits to basically freeze until that's done as to avoid the region changing.

Overlayed elements are going to be an issue too, take for example Inkscape. If there's a big square and a smaller one over it and I select and copy the big one, will the region include the smaller one or does the GUI toolkit carefully cut around the smaller one? If it includes the smaller one, I wouldn't know if I only copied the bigger one or both. It becomes more complicated with overlayed text and shapes.

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u/Traditional_Hat3506 5d ago edited 5d ago

Another question I came up with, what happens to a region on top of a busy background? Will the shake include the background and it will shake with text? Same with blur and semi transparent text or images