3.3.3 Using the Object operations with the clipboard

You can use the clipboard to transfer a tool's "primary object" between tools. There are three commands available, as follows:

• Choose Edit > Object > Copy Object to put the selection or "primary object" onto the clipboard.
• Choose Edit > Object > Cut Object to put the selection or "primary object" onto the clipboard and remove it from the tool it was copied from.
• Choose Edit > Object > Paste Object to put the contents of the clipboard into the current tool.

Use of Copy Object or Cut Object followed by Paste Object lets you transfer items between tools, or to different parts of the same tool. There are several ways to use these commands:

• In the Class Browser (for example) you can Copy Object the class to the clipboard and then Paste Object it into another tool. Because the Common Lisp object itself is copied to the clipboard, it is treated usefully according to the tool. For instance, if you paste it into an Inspector, it is inspected. If you paste it into an editor however, the class name is simply pasted as text.
• Between any of the tools, you can Cut Object , Copy Object , and Paste Object Common Lisp objects. You can, for instance, make an instance of a class in the Listener, inspect it by Values > Inspect , and then Copy Object it in the Inspector, and then Paste Object it into a Class Browser to examine its class.
• If you have several Common Lisp objects which you want to keep track of, store them in the Object Clipboard. You can do this by a Clip command in tools such as the Class Browser, or by Edit > Object > Paste Object in the Object Clipboard tool. See The Object Clipboard for more information about that tool.

Note: You can also transfer data within the environment using the standard actions commands described in Performing operations on selected objects.

UNIX Implementation Note: The environment also interacts with the standard UNIX clipboard, so that data can be transferred to or from applications other than Lisp. To do this, the UNIX and the LispWorks IDE clipboards are kept in synchronization all the time, as follows:

• Whenever a Common Lisp object is copied to the LispWorks IDE clipboard, its string representation is copied onto the UNIX clipboard.
• Whenever a string is copied to the UNIX clipboard, it is copied onto the LispWorks IDE clipboard as a string.