119075 - Paste in UNIX shouldn't move cursor

Status: VERIFIED INVALID

(Core :: DOM: Editor, defect)

Description

[Jeremy M. Dolan]

If my cursor is here: <blink>|</blink>

And I middle-click -here- to paste, the text should be inserted on the first
line, where the cursor is before the click. This is normal paste behavior on UNIX.

The current way it's done is the cursor is poorly attempted to move near the
mouse, then the text is inserted. It's incredibly buggy, very hard to get text
where you want in, and makes using text inputs in huge freaking chore.

Netscape 4.x on UNIX had similar problems, but Mozilla is even worse. For
example, as I'm typing this, if I have something to paste in, I'd likely want to
do it below what I just typed. So you hit enter twice. And try to paste on the
new line. Except, the cursor moves to some random spot. Maybe a few lines up.
Maybe all the way in the beginning. Then inserts it. Then you manually delete
it. Then you try to paste on the new line again, then the curosr moves some
place new and inserts.

Turns out, on a empty line, you have about a 5x15 pixel invisable box in which
you must click, for Mozilla to figure out you want it on the new blank line.
Unbelivable annoying.

There are many many other situations Mozilla screws up text paste, and I won't
even begin to type them. The cursor moving needs to go. At least then you can
left click or arrow to a spot, so you know exactly where text is about to be
inserted. If I have to try and delete 3 paragraphs of text I just pasted in that
poped into the middle of some random sentance a page up, and then you hold
delete down to long, and end up deleting good text, which you have to rewrite, I
don't know what I'm going to do, but it won't be pretty.

Comment 1

[R.K.Aa.]

bug 97207?

Comment 2

[mozbug1]

I think most people to expect the paste to occur where you have the mouse
pointer.  Only people who do everything in xterm expect otherwise.  In xterm the
cursor can't be moved by the mouse at all, because it is a terminal emulator. 
Mozilla is not a terminal program, and no one should expect it to behave like one.

If you really want to make sure that the paste occurs at the current cursor
location use the edit menu or keyboard to paste.

Comment 3

[Robert Milkovits]

I agree with [e-mail] and suggest voiding this request.

Please don't change the current behavior.
Yes, an xterm or emacs will paste text where the existing insert cursor is when
you press middle mouse, meaning you can middle-mouse anywhere in the window and
have the text go in the existing insertion point. But these are command-line or
terminal oriented tools and the behavior is not correct for a window-based tool.

Using Xemacs, nedit, Netscape, or any other fully X-aware text entry field, or
tools like dtpad/textedit, or many other full window Unix tools (Cadence,
Synopsys, Tk/Tcl, any standard Solaris graphical apps like dtfile, etc.) that
use a standard X-windows toolkit for their text entry fields and the
middle-mouse click to paste inserts the text where the mouse pointer is located.
Yes, it absolutely requires PERFECT aim with the mouse to put the mouse pointer
right between two letters. But this is the behavior I see with every app I have
ever used that is not a terminal emulator, and I'm sure I'm not alone in saying
I expect it to behave this way.

There are a few bugs (noted in other requests) that middle-mouse positioning is
wrong, and that left-mouse clicks put you in the wrong place. This is true.

However, this bug request is asking for behavior that goes against every X11
based app I have ever used or seen.

Comment 4

[Robert O'Callahan (:roc) (email my personal email if necessary)]

I agree. This bug should be closed as INVALID. Every X app I've ever seen pastes
middle-click at the current mouse cursor position. Motif, Gtk (GNOME)and Qt
(KDE) all work this way.

Comment 5

[sujay]

marking INVALID per comments

Comment 6

[sujay]

v

Comment 7

[Jeremy M. Dolan]

Is it possible this could be an option? I find it madening to have to target a
few pixels to make sure my paste is inserted in the correct place. Xaw
applications (xedit, xman) paste to the cursor...