Support the ability to copy to clipboard in extensions

[cfjedimaster]

Support writing (and maybe reading) the system clipboard.

Why I need it: I want to write an extension that will take the contents of the current editor, modify it (by escaping < and >) and then copy that modified text to the clipboard.

[brenthuisman]

Perhaps tangentially related: currently, on Linux, selecting text doesn't copy to the X clipboard. Nor does middle-clicking paste. Would be nice to have.

[mackenza]

I am confused... copy in VSC, paste in xterm seems to work. Am I missing something here?

[cfjedimaster]

Ouch - I'm sorry. I meant to say "for Extensions" - going to edit now.

On Fri, Nov 20, 2015 at 6:35 PM, Andrew MacKenzie notifications@github.com
wrote:

I am confused... copy in VSC, paste in xterm seems to work. Am I missing
something here?

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Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#217 (comment).

Raymond Camden, Developer Advocate for MobileFirst at IBM

Email : raymondcamden@gmail.com
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Twitter: raymondcamden

[jrieken]

Raymond Camden (@cfjedimaster) You should use a node module for this, like https://github.com/xavi-/node-copy-paste

[cfjedimaster]

Respectfully I disagree. I think the Editor can do more to enable extension developers to be productive. Accessing the clipboard is - imo - not something I should have to go to Node for. It really should be baked in.

[jrieken]

I agree to the point being able to use the simple copy&paste and those should be accessible via the respective command. Tho being able to modify the clipboard contents is different story and I think it's fair to draw the line there

[siegebell]

Johannes Rieken (@jrieken) It's fairly common for editors to provide advanced clipboard features beyond what the system provides, and it makes sense for the feature to exist as an extension, e.g. vscode-multiclip. I'm writing an extension that needs to be able to copy arbitrary text into the clipboard (not just the editor selection), and it would be great if it played nicely with vscode-multiclip or any other extension that provides advanced clipboard features. Requiring that my, and all others' extensions, know about such clipboard-extensions in order to access their exported API (if one is even provided) is unreasonable.

Edit: VSCodeVim is another example where an extension extends the clipboard functionality.

[vvuk]

Same with emacs bindings -- e.g. in emacs you can keep typing C-k to repeatedly delete lines, building them all up to paste as a single thing. This doesn't seem possible to implement in VSCode right now, without ignoring the actual system clipboard entirely (which is what the current emacs keybindings do).

Is there any reason why the line is drawn at modifying clipboard contents? Extensions can execute arbitrary code, so it's not security...