The Holy Grail: Cut/Copy/Paste

[Surf Monkey]

This is easily the best evidence we've seen so far that Cut/Copy/Paste is finally making its way to the iPhone. Better (WAY) late than never. If it's true and we see those functions added to iPhone sometime in the next few months, I'll have no significant complaints left about the device. The only additional OS level function I'd like to see after that is handwriting recognition via a mobile version of InkWell. But really, Cut/Copy/Paste is the shiznit. I hope the article is right.

 

[Jesse Hollington]

I think that's a fair statement and the article is probably quite accurate.

I never thought that Apple deliberately left that feature out so much as I simply suspected they couldn't figure out how to best implement it. It's not as simple as it is on other devices where you can use keyboard shortcuts and pop-up menus.... Trying to implement cut/copy/paste on a device like the iPhone would require a whole new design paradigm, and with Apple's obsessive-compulsive attitude toward such things, it wouldn't surprise me if there's been a team of designers/developers sitting around in a windowless room for that past year doing nothing but trying to figure out how to implement this

That having been said, I have to note that the iPhone still does a better job of allowing you to live without this feature than any other device I've ever used. That's no excuse, and they definitely should implement it, but at least they've done a reasonable job of making its absence less obvious by providing cross-application links in most places where people would need to otherwise use copy and paste on a regular basis.

 

[Surf Monkey]

That having been said, I have to note that the iPhone still does a better job of allowing you to live without this feature than any other device I've ever used.

Yep. We've had this discussion before and come to the same conclusion. I could almost live without it, but I do find myself in situations where I wish I had it at least once every other day or so.

 

[tnutzinc]

good looks on tha info!~!!

 

[MilMascaras]

I wonder if it really will happen soon.
Because, there is one rule about the iPhone OSx that exists:
An application cannot run in the background whilst another program is open;
If you have a program open, and you want to switch to another program, the iPhone OSx will normally cause the background program to save its info and quit before the new program can be launched.

So say you have a web browser open, and you want to grab a big hunk of it, text and graphics: So you highlight the desired text/graphics, copy it, then you want to paste it into a text editor. So you grab the info, then launch a routine to copy the items, put them on a clipboard, save the clipboard, quit the web browser, open the text editor, and paste the clipboard. If the clipboard is another program, can it be kept open whilst switching between the 2 programs in the rest of this mix? I think the failure to truly multitask within the iPhone OSx is the grail not yet reached.

 

[Surf Monkey]

An application cannot run in the background whilst another program is open;
If you have a program open, and you want to switch to another program, the iPhone OSx will normally cause the background program to save its info and quit before the new program can be launched.

You make an interesting argument, but there are examples of the kind of functionality needed already running on iPhone. The email application for example. It runs in the background. Anything that can prompt an email or a Web link is copying data from one application to another. So I think the hooks are there, it's just a matter of putting the right interface on top of it.

 

[Galley]

This is probably the best explanation I have found for its absence so far.

 

[Jesse Hollington]

Yes, I think Gruber hit the nail on the head there. That's exactly the link I was thinking of when I wrote my earlier post above...