I wonder why complicate things when standard button combinations work? Of course, sometimes it is appropriate to look for new functionality, but more often than not the best is the enemy of the good, it is better not to complicate things.
Damn @Mina - I may have to give KDE another go… I suspect the inconsistency is probably Gnome…
In my experience even with clipit running - middle button paste support seems very sporadic and inconsistent…
In my Ubuntu 20.04 Gnome :
Doesn’t work in Libre Office (ever)
Doesn’t work in Gedit (doesn’t work if it’s text selected e.g. in another paragraph in same document in gedit - but it does paste on middle click from other sources - e.g. a terminal session)
It ALWAYS works in Gnome Terminal
It sometimes works in remmina / rdesktop
It sometimes works in KeeWeb password database manager
I found it mostly (but not always) works in AbiWord…
It may not sound like much - but having to Ctrl+C, then Ctrl+V** or right click and select paste (or the double whammy, Right Click select Copy, go to other window / app then Right Click select Paste), takes heaps longer than the default X behaviour - especially in my case as I have an external Thinkpad keyboard (Lenovo Thinkpad Keyboard 2 - 2.4 Ghz wireless and bluetooth model) with a trackpoint (AKA “nub” but don’t call it a “cl_t_r_s” rhymes with Delores [see Seinfeld] or no male user will be able to find it 
) and three mouse buttons beneath the space bar… And I do this stuff ALL the time… e.g. my tirade in a previous was when I was trying to create a document with lots of technical stuff pasted from a terminal session… I actually gave up and did it in Office 365 in Google Chrome (which ALWAYS supports middle-click paste from X select buffer)…
Also - I’m left handed - so if my left hand is on an actual mouse (I use an actual mouse in my left hand, as well as/alternately the built-in trackpoint on the keyboard) - so if I have to Ctrl+V I try to use my right hand - and it’s quite a reach with one hand, so I can keep my left hand on the mouse…
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I got the message "You’ve replied 3 times to @Mina in this particular topic! ", but there do seem to be questions related to the many ways office and publishing functions might evolve. The present situation doesn’t seem satisfactory; perhaps there’s a lack of the sort of direction and focus that would be suitable for the FOSS approach. Perhaps someone with a clearer view than me could propose a list of separate but related “strategic” topics.
- There will always be a need for office suites that don’t have significant learning curves for beginners. We could discuss a simplified optional user interface for LO (which seems to be dominant) as opposed to simpler applications that need maintaining and don’t let people evolve according to needs.
But LO has some design faults that are fatal when you meet them and apparently can’t be corrected. Ones that come to mind are: 1) you can’t lock the format of a spreadsheet while allowing the user to input data, 2) date and number formats seem to have a mind of their own, tied to the language settings apparently.
- Does Emacs with all its bindings have a serious chance of replacing office suites for users who require different sets of fairly basic functionalities?
Can Emacs really save all the hassle of learning LaTeX for the many people who need or want the quality it provides? While it’s a front end for many applications and functions, is there a risk that it will simply add another layer of complexity; for example, you need LaTeX commands but the syntax isn’t quite the same:
However, the fact that the above link deals with the important subject of bibliographic references (and with cross-references) indicates that there is a lot of interest and development effort.
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What is the future of standalone applications like the underfunded Scribus, which is brilliantly designed to do one kind of job without distracting the user with a front-end toolbox? Having said that, Scribus can connect with LaTeX and other specialised applications via not-too-well-documented Render Frames.
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Are there alternative offerings comparable to Emacs; if so, which one should we make the effort of learning? Sometimes I begin to think a monopoly situation can have advantages
I apologise for returning to the subject while getting too old to contribute anything.
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The Emacs comment was a joke.
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