Suggestion for Xorg / about middle-mouse click pasting

[Dave Howorth]

On Thu, 23 Jul 2020 04:19:16 -0400
Elie Goldman Smith <elie.goldman.smith at gmail.com> wrote:

> X.Org, to whom it may concern:
> 
> I'm writing to suggest that Xorg's middle-mouse pasting should be an
> optional feature, not an unchangeable behavior.
> 
> The rationale is simple:
> Middle-mouse pasting is only beneficial to users who know that it
> exists. For everyone else, it's a liability.
> 
> Say for example a user is writing a document, scrolling through it,
> and accidentally pastes text without knowing it.
> The pasted text might contain sensitive/private information.
> The user submits the document somewhere, and people read it.
> It's more likely than you think.
> 
> This isn't simply a matter of mouse scroll wheels that click too
> easily. Laptop touchpads are known to paste accidentally too. Even
> 2-button emulation is a liability, if the user doesn't remember to
> deliberately avoid pressing both buttons at once.
> 
> 
> Solution:
> Middle-mouse pasting would be great as a setting that can be
> enabled/disabled by 'xset' on the command line.

If implemented, this must be enabled by default since that has been the
behaviour for decades. Given that, one must know of th existence of the
feature in order to disable it. One is therefore not in the population,
however large or small, of those who do not know it exists. So the
rationale for this change is flawed.

> Please let me know if this would be simple to implement.
> 
> 
> Thanks
> - Elie
> 
> P.S.
> Current workarounds involve either:
> - completely disabling the middle mouse button
> - blocking the feature in specific apps only
> - scripts that continuously delete Xorg's clipboard every half-second

- learning not to press mouse buttons when you don't mean to?

> We can do better.
> 
> P.P.S.
> I would bet that desktop linux distros would disable middle-mouse
> pasting by default, if they could.

I would be strongly opposed to this suggestion for the reasons given
above.

> Many users are new to Linux, and are used to absent-mindedly clicking
> the scroll wheel while scrolling.
> Hardcore coders can always re-enable the feature via 'xset'.