Volume 6A: Motif Programming Manual

property is associated with a client that is kept around between invocations of other applications, it embodies a

consistent repository for information to be passed between applications.

The ICCCM blesses the use of both the PRIMARY and CLIPBOARD selection properties. However, you should be

aware that the difference between the Motif use of the CLIPBOARD property and the use of the PRIMARY selection

property by other Xt applications makes interoperability questionable, unless you take care to handle the PRIMARY

selection in your application. The X Toolkit mechanisms for handling selections are described in Volume Four, X

Toolkit Intrinsics Programming Manual. The Motif Text widgets support both the Xt mechanism, which uses the

PRIMARY selection, and the Motif clipboard, depending on the interaction. You should probably do the same for

your application.

While you can manipulate properties and atoms directly using Xlib, the higher−level API provided by Motif and Xt

should insulate you from many of the details and ensure that your applications interoperate well with others.

Eventually, toolkits and applications will doubtless support numerous extensions of the current clipboard and selection

mechanisms.

18.6 Summary

The clipboard provides a convenient mechanism that allows applications to interact with one another in a way that is

independent of the application, operating system, and system architecture. The clipboard is one of two common

mechanisms used to handle data transfer between objects. ...