25714 - Edit menu, Copy/Paste command enable/disable confused by other apps

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(SeaMonkey :: UI Design, defect, P3)

Description

[Adam Masri]

Build ID: 2000012601
Platform: Mac PowerBook G3/300, 128Mb RAM, VM off.

Go to Mozilla search form, type in a very complex search. Before submitting,
bring up Apple menu: Note Pad. Go back to Moz, submit form. Quickly bring up
note pad, then bring Moz window forward again and hit stop. Note that Edit Menu:
Copy is an available option. Why? There's nothing selected!

Now, to add to the weirdness... Hit back button, so you return to the Query
screen. Select the URL in the location bar. Note that Edit: Copy is now
DISABLED. Huh? Click in any text field in the search form, then reselect
location bar URL. Now, you can copy.

- Adam

Comment 1

[Mike Pinkerton (not reading bugmail)]

simon, i know you were working on this stuff eariler. do you know who the right 
person to own this class of bugs is? It's not a menu bug, i'm pretty sure, but a 
focus bug in the browser.

Comment 2

[rubydoo123]

simon please assign this to the correct engineer after you get a chance to look 
at the issue -- thanks

Comment 3

[Eli Goldberg]

[QA Assigning to self, since I'm dealing with the other bugs related to this, 
e.g. 14026.]

Comment 4

[Akkana Peck]

Paste is almost never enabled on linux.  Changing platform to all.  (28864 looks
like the same issue, though it was marked worksforme.)

Comment 5

[Simon Fraser [no longer active]]

M16 these puppies

Comment 6

[rubydoo123]

m18

Comment 7

[rubydoo123]

using current build, this is fixed

Comment 8

[Akkana Peck]

Nope, paste is still greyed out on Linux even when there's something on the
clipboard.  Reopening.

Comment 9

[Akkana Peck]

Per beppe's request, adding keywords correctness and nominating for nsbeta3.

Note, the remaining issue is an issue with the Paste menu item never being
enabled in the editor.  Copy seems to enable okay now.  May be Linux specific.

Comment 10

[Simon Fraser [no longer active]]

Paste should be update when doing a 'Copy', and on focus calls. You can verify by 
putting a dump() in utilityOverlay.js::goUpdateGlobalEditMenuItems() and 
goUpdatePasteMenuItems().

Comment 11

[Simon Fraser [no longer active]]

reassign to pav to investigate linux clipboard weirdness.

Comment 12

[Eli Goldberg]

I'm totally incapable of reproducing this on today's Linux builds. Am I just not 
figuring out the obvious reproduction steps?

Comment 13

[Akkana Peck]

Eli, try this: start mozilla -edit, select something in another X app (e.g. an
xterm clone), go to the mozilla editor window and click the edit menu, and see
if paste is enabled.

Comment 14

[Eli Goldberg]

As mentioned in person, this bug was immediately obvious after doing so. Thanks! 

Comment 15

[Peter Trudelle]

need info: Pav says the paste item should not be enabled just because of a
selection in another app, but you should be able to insert the selection anyway
by middle-button clicking.  Does that work for you?

Comment 16

[Akkana Peck]

Yes, that works.  Aren't users going to be confused by having paste greyed out,
though?  For instance, users won't know that they can "Paste as Quotation"
something that they selected in another app (they actually can, with
control-middleclick, but that's not at all discoverable).

Comment 17

[Peter Trudelle]

Yes, some will be, but it is only slightly less discoverable than middle-click
itself.  Cut/Copy/Paste are really clipboard operations, so this may even be
invalid.  No time to consider for N6 though, nsbeta3-, ->future.

Comment 18

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

I agree with akk. Paste should be enabled for cross-app clipboard. Paste as
quotation with ctrl-middleclick is not really discoverable (I never thought, we
would do that).

Comment 19

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

I see copy in the summary. I also see that sometimes copy/cut are not enabled
when I select something in Mozilla (browser / mailnews msg / editor?). Is this
covered by this bug? Is there another bug about it?

Comment 20

[Jacek Piskozub]

I do not think there is a bug about the unavailable Paste after a Copy (yes, 
see it too, quite often). I believe ou should file one. I will do that myself
when I find a way to reproduce it every time - it does not happen often but
always when you need a Copy&Paste very bad.

Comment 21

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

clearing resolution and nominating.

Comment 22

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

Filed bug 79880 about Mozilla-internal copies/pastes.

What when I select text without doing Edit|Copy and try to paste in Composer? Is
that covered by this bug (inter-app) or bug 79880?

Comment 23

[ac131313]

Reproducable on NetBSD 0.9.1 under olvwm.

Set up mozilla to start up only mail/news

Click on ``New Msg'' to bring up e-mail composer.

*NOT*USING*THE*MOUSE* enter the e-mail address <RETURN><TAB> enter the subject
<TAB> leave cursor at the top of the message body

Go back to mail/news and copy some e-mail text.

Go back to the e-mail composer and try to paste it via the menues.  Neither
paste or quoted paste are available.

Workaround:

Click, with mouse in the to/cc area before trying to do the paste (or at any
stage earlier).

Comment 24

[Kathleen :Brade]

*** Bug 96290 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 25

[Dirk Munk]

My observation:

When I copy a piece of text from another X-window, the Paste function will still
be gray in for instance the composer. However cntrl-V does Paste the text. After
this, the Paste function is available (no longer gray).

OS: OpenVMS 7.3, Mozilla Build 2001080116 

Comment 26

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

not sure who the proper owner for this would be nowadays...

Comment 27

[Peter Trudelle]

not sure it fits current priorities, but sounds like a job for bryner

Comment 28

[Brian Ryner (not reading)]

On a current build, Paste seems to be enabled all the time (?), but selecting it
does not paste text that's selected in another application.

Comment 29

[Bryce Mozilla Nesbitt]

When I paste into Mozilla from OpenOffice, it hangs for a few seconds, then
pastes garbage.

Comment 30

[Akkana Peck]

Cc Louie, who might want to follow up with the Open Office team regarding that
problem where it pastes garbage.   Bryce, what version of mozilla, and what
version of OO, and what sort of text are you copying, from which OO app?

Comment 31

[Louie Zhao]

The problem between mozilla and OpenOffice should have been fixed by bug 123389.
Bryce, the phenomena you discribled looks like the behavior of t the old Mozilla
(before patch of bug 123389). what version of Mozilla do you use?

Comment 32

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

based on the summary...

does this still happen on MAC?  
Or, on other platforms with open office?
(excluding linux and remote desktop which are both in different bugs)

Comment 33

[Rob Campbell [:rc] (:robcee)]

I don't believe this bug is even valid anymore. (Apple menu: Notepad?) Unable to reproduce.

Comment 34

[Karsten Düsterloh]

This is WFM for me on a PowerBook G4 using SM 1.5 trunk nightly.

Comment 35

[Akkana Peck]

Wayne Mery asked me in private mail to comment in this bug as to whether this works for me. I'm not really the right person to comment on it because I don't use clipboard paste (maybe once in a blue moon); I use X-style primary (middlemouse) paste.

But at Wayne's request I did try a few tests on Linux, and paste seemed to be enabled when it should be, and I was able to clipboard paste something from another app (abiword). I didn't try any apps on a remote desktop, but clipboard ops should all go through the same X server, right?

I did not try the test case I described in comment 13 since -edit doesn't exist in any supported mozilla app. :-( I only tested in the browser.

Comment 36

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

closing WFM per last 3 commenters.  (reporter appears to be gone)