Wednesday, April 15, 2009

CopyPaste

I've just re-bought an app I used a lot years ago, CopyPaste, now in a Pro version. It's a Mac utility keeping archives of things you copy (or cut), and it's really useful.
(I'll see if I can get a rebate coupon for youse.)

1 comment:

Timo Lehtinen said...

Q: Why can't I have unlimited Archives and History clips?
A: To answer the question of why the clip archive is not unlimited. Well, it is unlimited. You can have as many archives as you want but each of those archives has 43 slots and the reason for that limitation is that is how many usable keys there are on a keyboard that can be used for hotkeys. Each hotkey is then used to copy and paste from an archive.
The reason the clip history is not unlimited is because memory on the mac is limited and there is no suitable interface to access an unlimited number of clips.


OMG! Is the developer a kid, or are free to laugh?


Hey, CopyPaste author, if you are reading this, here are some ideas:


1. There should be no separate "Archive" and "History", but just one unlimited record of every copy operation ever performed.
2. Yes, unlimited. (There is no need to count the keys on the keyboard for this.)
3. You can then offer last used, most used, keyword search, user fixed and other views to this one history.
4. The clips should be stored on disk in an open format (and you should document that format).
5. With each clip you should store the date and time when the clip was made.
6. The "clip tools" function should allow the user to pipe the clip through an arbitrary command. And, in fact, in a clean design, this is the only implementation method you need. Allow the user to set any number of these functions in the menu - in any order. Support menu hierarchies for organization.