Can't trust the C button.

605 points · 124 comments · view on lemmy.world

124 Comments

cadekat@pawb.social · 46 pts · 47d (8 replies)

y p gang rise up

craftrabbit@lemmy.zip · 14 pts · 47d (6 replies)

My favourite activity is yyppppppppppp

FishFace@piefed.social · 14 pts · 47d (5 replies)

Why not yy11p eh!

craftrabbit@lemmy.zip · 9 pts · 47d (3 replies)

Not nearly as satisfying

errer@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 47d (1 reply)

I disagree, executing obscure commands like that makes me feel extra smug

NiHaDuncan@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 46d

I mean, I wouldn’t call yank and paste with a count modifier obscure but it is the best way to minimize keystrokes.

FishFace@piefed.social · 2 pts · 47d

Hah!

atx_aquarian@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 47d

Ah, a fellow golfer, I see.

rocnat@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 46d

M-w

BenLeMan@lemmy.world · 26 pts · 47d (17 replies)

FACT.

Does anyone here know why it's unreliable?

pHr34kY@lemmy.world · 26 pts · 47d (2 replies)

It wasn't always like this.

I swear every version of Windows between 3.11 and XP was 100% reliable. Then it just started... slipping.

What's weird is that it often works on the second try.

jaybone@lemmy.zip · 11 pts · 47d (1 reply)

If you’ve ever looked at windows desktop application source code (shudder) they have all this wacky shit around event handling in their native C/C++ APIs, which is a lot less clean that what you typically see in other languages / platforms which do similar event handling. It wouldn’t surprise me if that shit is hacky and buggy as fuck on the OS side of that implementation too.

So this would be your ctrl-c press event, and whatever handler code.

Though it’s been like 20 years since I looked at some of this. Maybe it’s better now, but somehow I doubt it.

echodot@feddit.uk · 3 pts · 46d

Microsoft screwing up something as simple as an event listener is peak Microsoft

Jesus_666@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 47d (2 replies)

Because your company makes you use Azure Virtual Desktop to connect to a VM and AVD's clipboard handling is as unreliable as anything else from Microsoft?

BenLeMan@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 47d

That's a sensible theory for when this happens at work (it's Citrix in my case).

I'd swear it happens at home on Windows 10 as well, though. Maybe I am pressing it wrong sometimes. Either way, the meme is spot on for me.

echodot@feddit.uk · 3 pts · 46d

I have to connect to remote PC then from that connect to another remote PC then from that connect to another remote PC and then finally log in. I have to enter the same password like six times. It's a miracle anything syncs across that mess

Zarobi@aussie.zone · 6 pts · 47d (2 replies)

I have unconfirmed theories.

  • My C and V key are literally the most worn keys on my keyboard. The letters are completely worn off, they're by far my most used keys. That amount of use probably makes the contacts degrade and less reliable.
  • Windows 10 (I think?) introduced a "fancy clipboard" with history and multi paste and generally made it an "app". In my experience the fancier it is the more failure points, since it's no longer just a simple OS memory buffer, it has its own application logic.
  • Since it's a global hotkey, the OS has to:
    • Handle the interrupt
    • Query the currently active window / application for a "copy" output of the currently highlighted context
    • Wait for a response
    • Place that response into a buffer of some sort
    • In a highly volatile asynchronous UI where the user can alt tab at any time, I imagine often what happens is that you just didn't wait long enough for the data to actually copy. Pressing CTRL+C would be equivalent in reliability as waiting 2 seconds, but it's more fun to press the button a bunch
SlurpingPus@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 46d

Handle the interrupt

For better or worse, usb devices need to be polled by the computer all the time, instead of delivering interrupts at the moment of input events. I'm baffled by this fact, but am not versed in hardware design well enough to weigh pros and cons. I assume that the polling is handled by the usb controller, though.

Query the currently active window / application for a "copy" output of the currently highlighted context

Place that response into a buffer of some sort

To my vague knowledge, the various GUIs all request content from the owner of the selection at the moment of pasting, i.e. ctrl-v — presumably both to avoid storing large swathes of pictures and such, and to allow conversion to the target format on the fly. However, iirc some environments require defining the available formats when content is copied, so idk how this meshes with that. I'm not a desktop programmer, so not entirely sure. Perhaps it's just to simplify copying for the programmer of the source app, instead of exposing the whole innards.

In a highly volatile asynchronous UI where the user can alt tab at any time, I imagine often what happens is that you just didn't wait long enough for the data to actually copy.

Properly, any input event would be delivered to the app (or rather the UI element) that was active at the time of the event — and presumably the OS UI runs at a higher priority for that. However, in practice it seems to be a toss-up as to whether it really works like this.

flambonkscious@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 46d

Thanks, that's interesting - I hadn't thought about the window messages responding to update the all clipboard

It's odd to me that the paste is almost never the previous clipboard value - it's basically always null

jaschen306@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 47d (1 reply)

Because copy and paste started bring over formatting.

If you do control shift V, it removes it and is much more reliable.

BenLeMan@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 47d

No that's not what I mean (plus it doesn't work most of the time, either). It's the copying that often fails for me, which I only notice when I paste and realize "wait a minute, these are the previous contents of my clipboard."

Ziglin@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 46d

In my case it's mostly that browsers and as such also electron Apps unfocus textboxes when the window is unfocused for seemingly no reason, sometimes without giving visual indication meaning that I need to reselect it to copy it.

Strider@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 46d

Windows.

Hazel@piefed.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 47d (3 replies)

Probably just because you typed C + Ctrl by accident.

BenLeMan@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 47d (2 replies)

Nah that's not at all how that hand movement works. It's always rest on Ctrl and then find C for me. It would also type "C" over the highlighted text, which would be very noticeable.

Hazel@piefed.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 46d (1 reply)

Yeah, I guess it would type a C.

Maybe your keyboard lacks NKRO and your cat was sitting on 6 other keys? =P

BenLeMan@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 46d

I wish I had a cat. 🐱😍

wiccan2@thelemmy.club · 18 pts · 47d (12 replies)

Where's CTRL + INSERT, SHIFT + INSERT

Klear@piefed.world · 13 pts · 47d

I've been stubbornly using that for years but eventually the convenient placement of c/v won me over.

DmMacniel@feddit.org · 6 pts · 47d

thank you.

dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 47d (3 replies)

And here is someone who has absolutely at some point in history modified the source code to GORILLAS.BAS.

chiliedogg@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 47d

I haven't thought about chucking explosive bananas in years.

Edit: And now I'm remembering "Nibbles"!

Skyrmir@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 46d

Hey! It doesn't mean we're that ol...fuck.

flambonkscious@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 46d

Hell yeah! That takes me back!

humorlessrepost@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 46d

And shift + del for cut, if I remember correctly.

devfuuu@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 47d (4 replies)

Watch out this person has computers that still have insert keys!

cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 47d (3 replies)

Don't they all? Maybe not tkl boards, but maybe via fiction key like on some laptops?

Hazel@piefed.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 47d (1 reply)

Ah yes the function key.

That key nobody ever uses.

toynbee@piefed.social · 1 pts · 46d

Sometimes I accidentally press the function key on my work-mandated Mac.

For some reason, it brings up a window full of emoji. Cmd+w doesn't close it and cmd+q quits whatever application I actually wanted to be using.

I hate it.

devfuuu@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 46d

Laptops mostly that keep having keys being removed.

Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works · 17 pts · 47d (4 replies)

This is a huge problem in windows now and it never used to be.

Everything Microsoft does seems to degrade that shit OS daily.

mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca · 11 pts · 46d (2 replies)

it pisses me off so much. literally every month some new feature/bug is added to critical software that we use and which results in clearly quantifiable wasted time, money, and stress

the ctrl+c issue alone has cost the company a few thousand dollars in the past year from the few cases I can think of off the top of my head. there's a bit of software that we use where we need to enter the information that exists in one field into another field. obviously copy paste is the way to do this, it's simple and it should work, right? except the program is built on Access and has its own problems on top of Windows fucking everything up. so what happens is people paste the previous copy into the new field instead of the newly-attemped copy. and that results in people spending hundreds of dollars to order the wrong part. bc the fucking software is garbage to interact with.

binarytobis@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 46d

I’ll never understand why successful companies can’t just keep printing money, but give in to the insatiable desire to enshittify.

echodot@feddit.uk · 3 pts · 46d

The one that pisses me off is when remote desktop randomly decides that the clipboard isn't going to sync over anymore.

cosmos8188@leminal.space · 3 pts · 46d

AI is starting to bear its true fruits.

abominable_panda@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 47d (5 replies)

On linux kde you can highlight & middle click

Edit: ive only ever used kde seriously so didn't realise this was an x/ wayland thing.

grue@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 47d (1 reply)

Pretty sure that's an X (and I guess now Wayland) thing, not a KDE thing. I could be wrong, but I think you could sit down at a VAX from the '80s and expect it to work.

abominable_panda@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 47d

Thanks for the correction!

mumblerfish@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 47d

That was part of X right? Not jusy KDE. And a lot of wayland stuff also has it.

ThePropHat@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 47d

i have this in hyprland which is wayland 👍

Zarobi@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 47d

Probably my most hated feature that I couldn't turn off. Every time I expected middle click to start scrolling in VSCode or a word document or any app really, it would paste my clipboard instead, and I would die a little inside

ConstantPain@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 46d (4 replies)

It's a UX issue. Ctrl+c has no feedback to the user.

ghen@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 46d (3 replies)

It's also just a Windows issue because it doesn't recognize that I pressed control c sometimes

mhzawadi@lemmy.horwood.cloud · 1 pts · 46d

Not a windows only thing, I have a Mac and I end up pressing command+c 20 times too

bangupjobasusual@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 46d (1 reply)

It is absolutely a windows 11 clipboard issue, which fails silently ALL OF THE TIME.

echodot@feddit.uk · 1 pts · 46d

Yeah sometimes it just types a space. Like where did it get that from I have never in my entire life copied a single space character.

Funkt4st1c@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 46d (7 replies)

Mouse highlight -> middle mouse click

spicehoarder@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 46d (6 replies)

No. This is the dumbest UX decision anyone has ever made, and I will die on this hill. The keyboard is for text, and the mouse is used for navigation. Anything else, is a bastardization dreamt up by mad men.

ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 46d

If you're using your mouse to highlight it already then it makes sense to paste with it.

Funkt4st1c@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 46d (3 replies)

But my computer has two different clipboards :)

friend_of_satan@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 46d (2 replies)

vim has 48 "clipboards", but how many people use more than one? how many people get frustrated when they accidentally use the non-default one?

absentbird@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 46d

I mean I use at least two; one for vim and a second one mapped to my system clipboard. But I'll often yank to other buffers when I'm deep in a project, sometimes you don't want to lose something you're gonna be pasting throughout a document.

toddestan@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 46d

People who make use of macros would be using more than one. I make use of some of the various registers from time to time, but I'd have to be doing something pretty extreme to run out of letters.

friend_of_satan@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 46d

What do you think the middle click should do?

87Six@lemmy.zip · 13 pts · 47d (5 replies)

Meanwhile in Excel copy-paste is basically wired in with hopes and dreams

SippyCup@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 47d

"These two columns... I see what you're doing here, I'll just continue that formula down ok?"

Great! How about this table? Can we copy this bit here and move it to-

"Your honor I have never seen this man in my life, I don't speak English, and I think he's threatening me."

chiliedogg@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 47d

A nightmare is a kind of dream, I guess.

ConstantPain@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 46d (1 reply)

Scroll wheel too.

87Six@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 46d

Oh god YES

It's even worse in LibreOffice

Warl0k3@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 46d

(Microsoft bullshit survival tip: You can start a new instance of Excel by right clicking it's icon and, while holding alt the whole time, selecting something to open ("New workbook" or w/e shows up on the right click menu this week...). This separates the action history, so ctrl+z no longer jumps between workbooks.)

httperror418@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 46d (2 replies)

Don't you mean ctrl + shift + c if in terminal and ctrl+c elsewhere

mhzawadi@lemmy.horwood.cloud · 2 pts · 46d

On Mac, iterm has a highlight to copy feature that I love and miss when I have to use someone else's mac

gooballer@lemmy.today · -1 pts · 46d

can you tell me more about that "ctel" modifier key. I haven't seen that anywhere else

urandom@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 46d (1 reply)

Selecting text to automatically copy it, and then pasting it with the middle mouse button is clearly the superior method.

Funkt4st1c@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 46d

They aren't prepared for the ancient texts

InvalidName2@lemmy.zip · 9 pts · 47d

For me it's because, at least historically speaking, there's usually no immediate feedback whatsoever if the command was successful or not. And then in addition, individual applications can also disable it entirely, often with no indication. Then on top of that, I switch back and forth between OSes, and some like Mac have different command keys and my brain doesn't always automatically do the translation -- especially since I'm using the same keyboard for all of them.

So, from a strictly reactive sensory perspective, my failure rate with just the single ctrl + c command is far from the non-zero it would take for my brain to be convinced that just the one 'c' is sufficient. Hitting the 'c' many times also gives my brain a tiny bump of endorphins / dopamine / whatever over and above hitting it just the once. It's like playing the lotto or playing a slot machine, except all I win is paste.

glibg10b@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 46d

*select*

*middle mouse button click*

LurkingLuddite@piefed.social · 6 pts · 47d (1 reply)

What if you're in a terminal? Ctrl-C might not be the wisest choice.

heartSagan5@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 47d

I sometimes use Ctrl+w (yank the last word) then Ctrl+y (paste it) in terminal.

Ctrl+a (move the cursor to the beginning of this line — useful to add sudo)

Ctrl+e (move the cursor to the end of this line)

Ctrl+f (move the cursor forward one character)

Ctrl+b (move the cursor back one character)

Ctrl+u (yank the whole line — better than hitting backspace a whole lot)

Ctrl+l (clear the terminal)

Ctrl+d (logout/exit)

n7gifmdn@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 46d (1 reply)

You press ctrl+c 20 times. I press ctrl +x then ctrl +v once. We are not the same

KingOfTheCouch@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 46d

And then ctrl-z a bunch of times because fuckfuckfuck

vala@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 6 pts · 46d (2 replies)

Vim has entered the chat

vwyp
glibg10b@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 46d

You mean ywp? You don't need visual mode for a single motion lol

Bakkoda@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 46d

Burn the witch!!!

keiko@fedia.io · 5 pts · 47d (2 replies)

Ctrl+CCtrl+Shift+CCtrl+Shift+VCtrl+V 👑 🧊

albbi@piefed.ca · 2 pts · 47d (1 reply)

When copying from a browser, Ctrl + Shift +C causes something like the debugger to open.

keiko@fedia.io · 3 pts · 47d

I was sharing the mechanism for copying between vms within Qubes OS, which is a bit different from traditional operating systems. First you copy to the clipboard of the current qube, then copy to the shared clipboard, then paste from the shared clipboard into the clipboard of the destination qube, and finally paste within that destination qube.

lastlybutfirstly@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 46d (4 replies)

I don't get it.

Omegamanthethird@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 46d (3 replies)

Gotta make sure that things get copied.

MonkeMischief@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 46d (2 replies)

Gotta make sure that things get copied.

Gotta make sure that things get copied.

buddascrayon@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 46d (1 reply)

Gotta make sure that things get copied.

Gotta sure make things get that copied.

MonkeMischief@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 45d

Gotta make sure that things get copied.

Gotta sure make things get that copied.

Sure gotta get that things make copied.

WraithGear@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 46d (1 reply)

…. control-shift-v

that is all

echodot@feddit.uk · 4 pts · 46d

I wish there was a way of making that the default behavior, I spent so much time removing random formatting that people have inserted into excel documents.

CoPilot likes to come in and tell me about all of the errors in the spreadsheet, but it's really clunky and slow so it's often easier to just fix them manually, it never fixes formatting issues the stupid thing.

DiggyDiggyMole@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 46d

nvim packs the most essential features 😍

driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br · 4 pts · 47d

Ctrl + x -> Ctrl + v -> Ctrl + v

Xoriff@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 46d

Pooh in monocle and tophat: yy & p

AI_toothbrush@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 47d (3 replies)

On most distros/de(or whatever determines this behaviour, idk) on linux you can just select and then middle mouse click. Its so convenient

FatVegan@leminal.space · 1 pts · 47d (2 replies)

Is there a reason why it sometimes doesn't work? I use arch and i'm kind of a noob when it comes to linux. I did the middle mouse tging for a bit and it seems hit and miss or i'm too stupid. Like sometimes it works, and sometimes it keeps pasting the thing i copied 10 min ago, and it doesn't matter how often i copy a new thing.

synapse1278@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 47d

The Ctrl+C and the mouse select are 2 different buffers. Some applications do not accept the mouse select buffer though, and that's annoying.

In the best case you can CTRL+C some text, then go mouse select another, and paste both in a new place with CTRL-V and middle mouse button. Don't mix the order tho.

Speiser0@feddit.org · 2 pts · 47d

As Synapse already said, applications need to support it.

But also your display manager needs to support it if it's a wayland one, and there might be a setting for it (also in applications).

The feature is called primary selection, FYI.

lobut@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 47d (1 reply)

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I seriously sometimes don't have the "COPY" part execute sometimes ... I've tried to do only one copy a few times and I'm like "wait, why didn't it copy"?

mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 46d

it's not just you, it's because Windows is fucking shit and just doesn't do it sometimes

justcallmelarry@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 46d

bitjunkie@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 46d

cp -a ~/file1 ~/file2

azvasKvklenko@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 46d

yp

Katana314@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 47d

Ctrl + X a function

Select some loose whitespace, backspace

Ctrl + V: Gives back the whitespace and that’s all

What the everloving fk, IDE

Caffeinated_Capybara@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 46d

You can never be too sure.

Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 47d

On the commandline:

CTRL+SHIFT+C / V

undefinedTruth@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 46d

Middle Click Paste Linux Master Race!

FiniteBanjo@feddit.online · 1 pts · 47d

Ctrl + Shift + c

Ctrl + v

I use Arch, btw

nailingjello@piefed.zip · 1 pts · 47d (3 replies)

Win + V shortcut shows clipboard history on Win 11 and works well for me. I haven't looked for anything similar on Linux yet using the Super key.

0x0@infosec.pub · 1 pts · 47d (1 reply)

Kde keeps clipboard history in the system tray, its probably possible to bind it to a hotkey as well

solxix@pawb.social · 1 pts · 47d

I'm pretty sure it's bound to Super+V by default now. It's bound like that for me and I don't remember if I changed it in global keybinds or not.

YoSoySnekBoi@kbin.earth · 1 pts · 47d

The best alternative I found was CopyQ, but I did have to write some custom automation scripts to move the window into position and close it when clicking away

ceiphas@feddit.org · 1 pts · 47d

I have ctrl-c and ctrl-v as mouse buttons

Shady_Shiroe@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 47d (3 replies)

I gotta use macOS occasionally to make ipa builds and I don't have command key and remapping ctrl doesn't work so I gotta use mouse

knexcar@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 47d (2 replies)

Doesn’t command map to the windows key?

Shady_Shiroe@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 46d (1 reply)

Nope it doesn't

Scrollone@feddit.it · 1 pts · 46d

It does. If it doesn't, I think your keyboard is just misconfigured

Yerbouti@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 46d

I use macOS and Linux and it does happen from time to time. Yelling at the computer doesn't seem.to fix the problem so far, but I'll report back of it does.

sit@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 43d

I always thought I didn’t press the c properly. This might explain

myotheraccount@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 47d

If you can't trust the C button, better use CMD not CTRL, because you are likely on a mac

k0e3@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 46d

I use my mouse's wheel tilt.