Hello,
I'm interested in moving text from and to the clipboard that cannot
necessarily be represented in the native encoding. So, really, this is
about Windows.
I can successfully read from the clipboard by specifying the format that
corresponds to unicode text.
From R >=2.7.0, it seems you should also be able to write unicode text
to the Windows clipboard.
https://github.com/wch/r-source/blob/5a156a0865362bb8381dcd69ac335f5174a4f60c/src/gnuwin32/CHANGES0#L535-L536
However, in my hands, this does not seem to be true. I can make it work
with this change:
diff --git a/src/library/utils/src/windows/util.c
b/src/library/utils/src/windows/util.c
index 373049495dd..fc3dc39e3a7 100644
--- a/src/library/utils/src/windows/util.c
+++ b/src/library/utils/src/windows/util.c
@@ -318,7 +318,7 @@ SEXP writeClipboard(SEXP text, SEXP sformat)
warning(_("unable to open the clipboard"));
GlobalFree(hglb);
} else {
- success = SetClipboardData(CF_TEXT, hglb) != 0;
+ success = SetClipboardData(format, hglb) != 0;
if(!success) {
warning(_("unable to write to the clipboard"));
GlobalFree(hglb);
Example:
"?" is "GREATER-THAN OVER EQUAL TO", which is unicode
<U+2267>, has
UTF-16LE bytes 67 22, and is not representable in latin1.
I copy ? to the Windows clipboard and attempt a round trip. I see:
x <- readClipboard(format = 13, raw = TRUE) # 13 <--> "Unicode
text"
#> [1] 67 22 00 00
writeClipboard(x, format = 13L)
readClipboard(format = 13, raw = TRUE)
#> [1] 67 00 22 00 00 00 00 00
and, literally, pasting yields: g"
If I build r-devel with the patch, the same process yields
x <- readClipboard(format = 13, raw = TRUE)
#> [1] 67 22 00 00
writeClipboard(x, format = 13)
readClipboard(format = 13, raw = TRUE)
#> [1] 67 22 00 00
and pasting returns the original input: ?
Passing the `format` to SetClipboardData() instead of hard-wiring
"CF_TEXT" brings behaviour in line with the docs.
-- Jenny
[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
On Fri, May 24, 2019 at 12:06 AM Jennifer Bryan <jenny at rstudio.com> wrote:> > Hello, > > I'm interested in moving text from and to the clipboard that cannot > necessarily be represented in the native encoding. So, really, this is > about Windows. > > I can successfully read from the clipboard by specifying the format that > corresponds to unicode text. > > From R >=2.7.0, it seems you should also be able to write unicode text > to the Windows clipboard. > > https://github.com/wch/r-source/blob/5a156a0865362bb8381dcd69ac335f5174a4f60c/src/gnuwin32/CHANGES0#L535-L536Thanks! I tested this and can confirm that this patch works. With this change, any (non ascii) unicode text now properly copies and pastes from/to the Windows clipboard.
>>>>> Jennifer Bryan >>>>> on Thu, 23 May 2019 00:03:05 -0400 writes:> Hello, I'm interested in moving text from and to the > clipboard that cannot necessarily be represented in the > native encoding. So, really, this is about Windows. > I can successfully read from the clipboard by specifying > the format that corresponds to unicode text. >> From R >=2.7.0, it seems you should also be able to write >> unicode text > to the Windows clipboard. > https://github.com/wch/r-source/blob/5a156a0865362bb8381dcd69ac335f5174a4f60c/src/gnuwin32/CHANGES0#L535-L536 > However, in my hands, this does not seem to be true. I can > make it work with this change:> diff --git a/src/library/utils/src/windows/util.c > b/src/library/utils/src/windows/util.c > index 373049495dd..fc3dc39e3a7 100644 > --- a/src/library/utils/src/windows/util.c > +++ b/src/library/utils/src/windows/util.c > @@ -318,7 +318,7 @@ SEXP writeClipboard(SEXP text, SEXP sformat) > warning(_("unable to open the clipboard")); > GlobalFree(hglb); > } else { > - success = SetClipboardData(CF_TEXT, hglb) != 0; > + success = SetClipboardData(format, hglb) != 0; > if(!success) { > warning(_("unable to write to the clipboard")); > GlobalFree(hglb); > > Example: > > "?" is "GREATER-THAN OVER EQUAL TO", which is unicode <U+2267>, has > UTF-16LE bytes 67 22, and is not representable in latin1. > > I copy ? to the Windows clipboard and attempt a round trip. I see: > > x <- readClipboard(format = 13, raw = TRUE) # 13 <--> "Unicode text" > #> [1] 67 22 00 00 > writeClipboard(x, format = 13L) > readClipboard(format = 13, raw = TRUE) > #> [1] 67 00 22 00 00 00 00 00 > > and, literally, pasting yields: g" > > If I build r-devel with the patch, the same process yields > > x <- readClipboard(format = 13, raw = TRUE) > #> [1] 67 22 00 00 > writeClipboard(x, format = 13) > readClipboard(format = 13, raw = TRUE) > #> [1] 67 22 00 00 > > and pasting returns the original input: ? > > Passing the `format` to SetClipboardData() instead of hard-wiring > "CF_TEXT" brings behaviour in line with the docs. > > -- Jenny > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]]Thank you, Jenny -- and Jeroen for confirmation! I've now found the time to read up a bit on this, notably ?writeClipboard and the underlying source code, and just from that reading I'd agree that the change seems a clear improvement and does what indeed the documentation had suggested all along. I'll commit the change to R-devel .. and plan to port it to 'R 3.6.0 patched' in a few days. Martin