3.4.2 Using the clipboard

You can use the clipboard to transfer data between tools, or even between the environment and other applications that you are running. There are three commands available, as follows:

• Choose Edit > Copy to put the selection or "primary object" onto the clipboard.
• Choose Edit > Cut to put the selection or "primary object" onto the clipboard and remove it from the tool it was copied from.
• Choose Edit > Paste to put the contents of the clipboard into the current tool.

Unlike the clipboard in many other applications, the Common LispWorks clipboard can contain the Common Lisp object itself. This makes the Common LispWorks clipboard an exceptionally powerful tool, allowing you to pass objects between different tools in the environment so that they can be examined in different ways.

Use of Copy or Cut followed by Paste lets you transfer items between tools, or to different parts of the same tool. There are several ways to use these commands:

• In the listener you can Copy the previous form to the clipboard and then Paste it into another tool. Because the Common Lisp object itself is copied to the clipboard, it is treated correctly--for instance, if you paste it into an inspector, it is inspected.
• In the editor, you can Copy chunks of text and Paste them into different places, either within the same file or between different files. If you have sections of code which are very similar, rather than typing each section out explicitly, just Paste in the same section as many times as you need and change only the relevant parts. Cutting, copying and pasting using the kill ring describes a number of more sophisticated methods that can be used in the editor.
• Between any of the tools, you can Copy , Cut , and Paste Common Lisp objects. You can, for instance, make an instance of a class in the listener, Copy it, then Paste it into a class browser to examine its description.

Note: You can also transfer data within the environment using the standard actions commands described in Performing operations on selected objects.

UNIX Implementation Note: The environment also interacts with the standard UNIX clipboard, so that data can be transferred to or from applications other than Lisp. To do this, the UNIX and Common LispWorks clipboards are kept in synchronization all the time, as follows:

• Whenever a Common Lisp object is copied to the Common LispWorks clipboard, its string representation is copied onto the UNIX clipboard.
• Whenever a string is copied to the UNIX clipboard, it is copied onto the Common LispWorks clipboard as a string.