clipboard (n)

SYNOPSIS

clipboard option ?arg arg ...?

DESCRIPTION

This command provides a Tcl interface to the Tk clipboard, which stores data for later retrieval using the selection mechanism. In order to copy data into the clipboard, clipboard clear must be called, followed by a sequence of one or more calls to clipboard append. To ensure that the clipboard is updated atomically, all appends should be completed before returning to the event loop.

The first argument to clipboard determines the format of the rest of the arguments and the behavior of the command. The following forms are currently supported:

clipboard clear ?-displayof window?

Claims ownership of the clipboard on window's display and removes any previous contents. Window defaults to ``.''. Returns an empty string.

clipboard append ?-displayof window? ?-format format? ?-type type? ?-\|-? data

Appends data to the clipboard on window's display in the form given by type with the representation given by format and claims ownership of the clipboard on window's display.

Type specifies the form in which the selection is to be returned (the desired ``target'' for conversion, in ICCCM terminology), and should be an atom name such as STRING or FILE_NAME; see the Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual for complete details. Type defaults to STRING.

The format argument specifies the representation that should be used to transmit the selection to the requester (the second column of Table 2 of the ICCCM), and defaults to STRING. If format is STRING, the selection is transmitted as 8-bit ASCII characters. If format is ATOM, then the data is divided into fields separated by white space; each field is converted to its atom value, and the 32-bit atom value is transmitted instead of the atom name. For any other format, data is divided into fields separated by white space and each field is converted to a 32-bit integer; an array of integers is transmitted to the selection requester. Note that strings passed to clipboard append are concatenated before conversion, so the caller must take care to ensure appropriate spacing across string boundaries. All items appended to the clipboard with the same type must have the same format.

The format argument is needed only for compatibility with clipboard requesters that don't use Tk. If the Tk toolkit is being used to retrieve the CLIPBOARD selection then the value is converted back to a string at the requesting end, so format is irrelevant.

A -\|- argument may be specified to mark the end of options: the next argument will always be used as data. This feature may be convenient if, for example, data starts with a -.

KEYWORDS

clear, format, clipboard, append, selection, type '\" '\" Copyright (c) 1992-1995 Karl Lehenbauer and Mark Diekhans. '\" Copyright (c) 1995-1997 Sun Microsystems, Inc. '\" '\" This documentation is derived from the time and date facilities of '\" TclX, by Mark Diekhans and Karl Lehenbauer. '\" '\" See the file "license.terms" for information on usage and redistribution '\" of this file, and for a DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES. '\" '\" RCS: @(#) $Id: clock.n,v 1.2 1998/09/14 18:39:51 stanton Exp $ '\" '\" The definitions below are for supplemental macros used in Tcl/Tk '\" manual entries. '\" '\" .AP type name in/out ?indent? '\" Start paragraph describing an argument to a library procedure. '\" type is type of argument (int, etc.), in/out is either "in", "out", '\" or "in/out" to describe whether procedure reads or modifies arg, '\" and indent is equivalent to second arg of .IP (shouldn't ever be '\" needed; use .AS below instead) '\" '\" .AS ?type? ?name? '\" Give maximum sizes of arguments for setting tab stops. Type and '\" name are examples of largest possible arguments that will be passed '\" to .AP later. If args are omitted, default tab stops are used. '\" '\" .BS '\" Start box enclosure. From here until next .BE, everything will be '\" enclosed in one large box. '\" '\" .BE '\" End of box enclosure. '\" '\" .CS '\" Begin code excerpt. '\" '\" .CE '\" End code excerpt. '\" '\" .VS ?version? ?br? '\" Begin vertical sidebar, for use in marking newly-changed parts '\" of man pages. The first argument is ignored and used for recording '\" the version when the .VS was added, so that the sidebars can be '\" found and removed when they reach a certain age. If another argument '\" is present, then a line break is forced before starting the sidebar. '\" '\" .VE '\" End of vertical sidebar. '\" '\" .DS '\" Begin an indented unfilled display. '\" '\" .DE '\" End of indented unfilled display. '\" '\" .SO '\" Start of list of standard options for a Tk widget. The '\" options follow on successive lines, in four columns separated '\" by tabs. '\" '\" .SE '\" End of list of standard options for a Tk widget. '\" '\" .OP cmdName dbName dbClass '\" Start of description of a specific option. cmdName gives the '\" option's name as specified in the class command, dbName gives '\" the option's name in the option database, and dbClass gives '\" the option's class in the option database. '\" '\" .UL arg1 arg2 '\" Print arg1 underlined, then print arg2 normally. '\" '\" RCS: @(#) $Id: man.macros,v 1.2 1998/09/14 18:39:54 stanton Exp $ '\" '\" # Set up traps and other miscellaneous stuff for Tcl/Tk man pages. t .wh -1.3i ^B ^l \n(.l b '\" # Start an argument description AP !"\\$4"" .TP \\$4 \{\ !"\\$2"" .TP \\n()Cu .TP 15