From ellis at stat.harvard.edu  Fri Jan 12 01:49:13 2007
From: ellis at stat.harvard.edu (Byron Ellis)
Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 16:49:13 -0800
Subject: [Rd] Perhaps a stupid question about clipboards....
In-Reply-To: <17829.61495.797997.327193@stat.math.ethz.ch>
References: <7098abec0701102125p7c5b7dd5rf66598c9b8bddc29@mail.gmail.com>
	<17829.61495.797997.327193@stat.math.ethz.ch>
Message-ID: <7098abec0701111649y56ab88b8p749f22b926b427c3@mail.gmail.com>

On 1/11/07, Martin Maechler <maechler at stat.math.ethz.ch> wrote:
>     Byron> Why is the clipboard accessed through file() and not,
>     Byron> say, a clipboard() connection? Is there a good reason
>     Byron> for this or is it simply historical?
>
> Why use a new function name for just one special case?
> Or do you ask because it would help *find* the feature?

For the same reason that pipes have their own function? Additionally,
some systems have named clipboards (e.g. OS X and IIRC X11, though
that may require an extension of some sort) that you might want to
access explicitly.

Actually, ?clipboard turns up the right help page so if you didn't
know that there wasn't such a function you'd end up at the right place
(if perhaps a bit confused). As it happens, I use OS X so I had to use
pipe() since there isn't built in functionality. :-)


>
> Martin
>


-- 
Byron Ellis (byron.ellis at gmail.com)
"Oook" -- The Librarian



[Rd] Perhaps a stupid question about clipboards....
Byron Ellis