[tlug] Writing with Linux

["Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon" <ronfaxon@example.com>]

Copy-pasting.  I'm going to put some notes I've made about this in here 
just in case it might be of interest to anyone.  This is a combination 
of observations and half-questions.  No advice is needed exactly, but 
any additional information about effective copy-pasting would be greatly 
appreciated.  I work with text from different files (sometimes in 
different formats) - generally tossing it into one file in order to most 
effectively edit it.

Observations:

Working with Klipper, changing the setting from:
"Separate clipboard and selection"

- to:
"Synchronize contents of the clipboard and the selection"

- seems to help in some cases where things were not copy-pasting from 
one application to another.


In copy-pasting from one application to another, sometimes the content 
must be marked with Ctrl+C and then pasted with the third mouse button 
and not Ctrl+V.


There are times when the same item keeps coming up when pasting - and  
not the most recently selected item.  Going to Klipper and marking the 
desired item, or else selecting "Clear clipboard history" is a 
work-around that generally, but not always, works.


Text editors

I'm generally able to copy-paste into EditPad Pro, but not always.  The 
times I'm not able to, I can copy-paste into SciTE, save that, and then 
open that file with EditPad Pro.  Which brings me to a question that 
some might have:


Why EditPad Pro?

Functionally, I think most of what you can do with EditPad Pro is also 
doable with the other text editors, but SciTE forces me to work with a 
black screen (I often work at night and a black or dark background is 
less damaging to the eyes).  For this reason alone I would want to use 
EditPad Pro (nedit opens in black, but I have to use the stark white 
console to get there), and there are other reasons as well.  A few 
things that come to mind are:

You can have several files open in the same window, with each file 
having its own tab at the top of the screen.  When going from file to 
file, this is much easier and more time efficient than having to switch 
over to different windows.

Irrespective of how text will print etc. (it is a text editor after 
all), you can set a default font size and style that you like to work 
with.  Depending on your screen size and resolution settings, this can 
really help out.  I'm using a 15-inch screen and the resolution is such 
that the default font size in  most applications is a bit too small.  
After changing the settings, it's exactly as I like it in EditPad Pro 
every time I open the file.

Live spell check which can be easily toggled on and off.  I know - it's 
beginning to sound like a word processor and not like a text editor, but 
I assure you that it's a good balance of text editor and... well... any 
text editor is a word processor in a way, but for extended writing, a 
lot of text editors leave something to be desired.  EditPad Pro is the 
only application I've used that allows me to work with 
several-hundred-page files (50,000 words and up) effortlessly and stably.

No - I don't work for EditPad Pro or receive a royalty on sales!  It's 
just that I have spent huge chunks of my life sitting in front of the 
computer working with text, and no other program from either the Evil 
Empire or the Free World has worked nearly as well for writing.  Whether 
it's as good for programming, I don't know - I use it for writing....


And... a word about the group.  Thank you to everyone who has helped me 
with one issue or another.  I think I can understand the short fuses of 
those with higher levels of Linux skills - it's time consuming to help 
people; and to invest a chunk of your life helping (every minute spent 
is a minute you can never get back), and then not get anything in return 
is bound to cause a profound dissatisfaction.  I will never be a 
computer programmer, but I'll try to help from a user's standpoint anyway.

Lyle