[BRLTTY] Smart Copy (Was: Re: xbrlapi: Minor clipboard issues and one small feature) request

[Sébastien Hinderer]

Dave Mielke (2026/02/21 11:51 -0500):
> >I do not understand why the manual uses the word
> >`cut` as hwat we do is really copy text andnever cut it?
>
> That was written a long time ago, i.e. when the commands were CUT... rather than COPY..., so it's just ancient history.
>
> >given how the section introduceds hthe
> >need for copy andpast for long txt, I think the smaprt copy will be a
> >great addition to it.
>
> Probably, yes. The real problem, though, is that it's out of date and
> there are other missing commands, too.

Okay I didn't realise that.

> >I am just wondring how it will fit in the current framework because what
> >the manal says is that one should start by selecting the beginingof the
> >region one wants to manipulate.
>
> That's the way those commands work.
>
> >If I understand the current implementaiton of smart copy this
> >requirement of selecting the beginning is removed.
>
> Yes.
>
> >I am not sure I am found of that. I think even for a smart copy I'd
> >prefer the smartness to go to the right from where I selected, not to
> >the left. To me that owuld be more coherent with how things already
> >work.
>
> But, in this case, do we want that kind of strict consistency? Your
> origial complaint was that it's hard to find the end of a URL. In
> theory, it's equally hard to find the beginning of a URL. So why not
> just let the software do the work in both directions. Isn't that
> provided ease more important than an obscure kind of consistency?

Non it's not equally hard at all! don't you receive e-mials with lengthy
URLs? When that happens, of course you know where the URL starts and
it's actually how you know it's a URL. The only problem then is to find
where it ends!

I got one of those e-mails not later than today. It was from a medical
lab to let me download the results of blood exams I did. It said
something like: Download your results at https//followed by maybe three
lines of the URL, and here I am speaking about 3 lines of 240 characters
each. So it's super easy to see where the URL starts and not at all to
find where it ends. So yes I think  there should be consistency here or
that, at least, it wouldn't hurt.

Regarding the manual, I didn't realise you were not comfortable with the
format. Which I can understand, though.

If the whole documentation should become something else, both int erms
of format and in temrs of structure, whatis it that you'd find easier to
maintain?