Clipper 0.20: TAFKA Clipboard

Recent improvements in support for the global clipboard across RISC OS prompted me to look at some of my software, and I’m pleased to announce that version 0.20 of Clipper is now available to download from my website at http://www.stevefryatt.org.uk/software/clipboard/ and from the PlingStore.

Formerly known as Clipboard, it seems that its name was never officially allocated from Acorn — causing it to be re-christened with a moniker which isn’t in use somewhere else.

For those who never encountered its predecessor, Clipper provides a simple window on to the global clipboard. The current clipboard content is shown as a file icon (which reflects how RISC OS sees it internally), and can be saved to disc in the usual drag-and-drop way. In addition, the content of files from disc can be placed on the clipboard by dragging them into Clipper’s window.

The name isn’t all that’s changed, though. Clipper now contains full support for Interactive Help, and follows the Style Guide a little more closely throughout. There have also been some improvements to the implementation of the Data Transer Protocol and the way that the clipboard content is tracked, which should make operation more reliable.

For those who are writing software to use the global clipboard, a “protocol” panel — normally hidden from view — shows the sequence of messages that are sent back and forth as data moves around. This has been updated in the new release, too, to include more detail of the complex exchanges which take place.

To reflect the extensive use of my standard Wimp library code in this new version of the software, Clipper’s licence is the same European Union Public Licence version 1.1 (EUPL) as used by much of my other software. The EUPL is an Open Source licence, which is considered compatible with a number of other Open Source licences including the GNU GPL v2.

There’s now a new test build of Clipper out, which is available here

It works around clipboard owners which don’t like null type lists in their Message_DataRequests, which previously denied Clipper access to their data. In addition, following feedback on csa.apps, an Adjust-click on Clipper’s iconbar icon will insert the current clipboard contents at the caret (assuming that the clipboard owner can supply it in plain text format).