Selection Buffer sending text before completing selection

fakie_flip · 06-18-2010, 04:49 PM

How can I change the behavior of the selection buffer or a program that uses it ( I have xclip) to not send me text until the mouse button is released while clicking and dragging? This causes havok in the software I'm developing that tries to make use of the selection buffer. I need the full selection, not bits more bits more bits and then the full selection.

EDIT: I cannot listen for mouse events such as button release outside of the GUI of my program.

David the H. · 06-18-2010, 07:20 PM

This is what the xsel man page has to say about the selection "buffer".

Quote:

There is no X selection buffer. The selection mechanism in X11 is an interclient communication mediated by the X server each time any program wishes to know the selection contents, eg. to perform a middle mouse button paste.

So I'm guessing there probably isn't all that much you can do about it, without looking carefully into the source code or the xlib functions. I can only suggest maybe looking into modifying your commands to copy the primary selection into the secondary or clipboard (y'know, I've never been able to figure out what the secondary is supposed to be for); and hopefully control the timing of when you get it back.

fakie_flip · 06-20-2010, 07:54 AM

It was only happening when I was testing my software by highlighting text in Netbeans IDE. I was also running the software from Netbeans, so that may have been why. I didn't know it was only happening this way, so it's not a problem. Thanks for the response.