Clipboard manager use case

[Albert Vaca]

On Wed, Nov 7, 2018 at 6:12 PM Simon Ser <contact at emersion.fr> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> On Wednesday, November 7, 2018 5:18 PM, Albert Vaca <albertvaka at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > I would like to start a discussion about the need of a protocol for
> clipboard
> > management in Wayland. As far as I know, the current approach for
> clipboard
> > managers and similar apps requires them to be implemented as part of the
> > compositor. This is of course a limitation for third party clipboard
> managers
> > and apps like KDE Connect, which I maintain.
> >
> > For some context, KDE Connect is a service that bridges your smartphone
> and
> > your computers together, with features like wireless file transfers,
> shared
> > notifications, or a shared clipboard across devices (on X11).
> >
> > For the clipboard synchronization in KDE Connect to work on Wayland, we
> need
> > a way to:
> > - Change the contents of the clipboard.
> > - Get notified about the contents of the clipboard when it changes.
> >
> > I think our needs are very similar to those of clipboard managers, so
> > probably one single protocol could address both necessities.
> >
> > What do you think? Should I make a protocol proposal for this use case?
> Is
> > there any similar use case that I'm overlooking?
>
> This is something wlroots would also be interested in. This could be
> useful for
> xclip-like clients and "real" clipboard managers (which let you e.g.
> navigate in
> the clipboard history).
>
> I've already started to work on a protocol [1]. It would be nice if we
> could
> share it. Questions and comments welcome!
>
> Note that there are security considerations that need to be taken into
> account.
>
> Thanks,
>
> [1]: https://github.com/swaywm/wlr-protocols/pull/25
>
> ---
> Simon Ser
> https://emersion.fr
>

Hi Simon,

I've given your proposal a read, and found it quite complicated. There are
concepts like "data device" or "data source" that seem too abstract from my
point of view. I guess your idea is that the clipboard is just one of many
possible "data devices", but I find this unnecessarily generic.

In my opinion, I would prefer a protocol that just talks about the
clipboard and its contents. Something similar to the Android Clipboard
Manager API [1], on Wayland.

[1] https://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/ClipboardManager

Would something on those lines cover your needs, or would you miss
something?

Albert
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