copying large string from clipboard is slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow

[Brian Milby]

The problem with the fullClipboardData and clipboardData is that when you
ask for a text key type that isn't on the system clipboard, then LiveCode
will generate it for you.

So if you ask for styled text, first it will just give you styled text from
the clipboard.  If not available, it will try for RTF and convert.  Next it
will look for HTML and convert, and finally it will convert plain text to
styled text.  Converting plain text to styled text involves parsing the
text into paragraphs as part of the operation.

If you ask for HTMLText, first it will get the StyledText (see above) and
then that will get converted to HTML.

I just copied part of the text of this email (doing in online in
GMail/Chrome on MacOS X).  Here's an example of what LiveCode is doing:

lock the clipboard;put the keys of the rawClipboardData;unlock the clipboard
public.html
public.utf8-plain-text (*)

put the keys of the fullClipboardData
text (*)
rtftext
htmltext
styles
styledtext
rtf
html


As you can see from the above, the system clipboard only really has 2
items, but LiveCode reports 7 different types being available.  Anything
besides text and html will be something that LiveCode has to generate
before providing.  I also did a copy in Atom (text editor) and executed the
same 2 commands.  The 2 lines marked with the (*) are all that is reported,
however LiveCode will still make the rest of the list available if
requested.

This is one of the times where understanding what the engine is doing in
the background can help you not work against it.

[And in the latest version of LiveCode, you can now set the clipboarddata[
"text"] and it will paste everywhere as expected - no automatic conversion
to HTMLtext (which is what just about every other program seems to use if
available).  This also means that you can use ((set the
clipboarddata["text"] to the clipboarddata["text"])) to 'clean' the
clipboard and remove formatting instead of using an external text editor.]

Thanks,
Brian

On Wed, Aug 15, 2018 at 5:37 PM, Tom Glod via use-livecode <
use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:

> I understand..thanks for clarifying and responding.  I will return and
> share my further findings on this...... and yes...LC does do alot of hard
> work for us.
>
> On Wed, Aug 15, 2018 at 6:00 PM, Richard Gaskin via use-livecode <
> use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:
>
> > See Brian's note to get where I was going with that.
> >
> > I suggested comparing the speed with other programs because I'm assuming
> > you're doing this for a worthwhile reason.  When we see how other apps
> > compare with a similar task for their own reasons we begin to see the
> wide
> > range of things that can sometimes happen moving lots of data to and from
> > the system scrap.
> >
> > An MD5 hash is not a Clipboard operation.  It doesn't need to integrate
> > with the system's Clipboard subsystem, nor require reformatting the
> entire
> > string as the Clipboard sometimes does.
> >
> > "If you can drive one mile in a minute, shouldn't you be able to walk
> that
> > in the same amount of time? After all, it's the same length." :)
> >
> > Different operations take different amounts of time.
> >
> > LC makes it easy to forget that, since it does so much of the work for
> us.
> > Only by following the conversation around various Clipboard bug reports
> > have I been able to begin to approximate an understanding of the
> complexity
> > of the task.  LC is sometimes working really, really hard so we don't
> have
> > to.
> >
> > If the amount of time needed for that operation is prohibitive for what
> > you need to do, I'm sure we can find an alternative method.  Maybe
> > rawClipboardData will handle what you need.  Other methods may be
> available
> > as well.  It all depends on what exactly you want to do. Sometimes we can
> > learn by how other apps do that.
> >
> > --
> >  Richard Gaskin
> >  Fourth World Systems
> >
> >
> > Tom Glod wrote:
> >
> > Hi Richard...to copy it from a custom property into a variable takes a
> >> blink of an eye.
> >>
> >> the file is i think 4.5 mb or so.
> >>
> >> takes 14ms seconds to do a md5 hash
> >>
> >> its definitely the slowness of the clipboarddata function.
> >>
> >> On Wed, Aug 15, 2018 at 5:25 PM, Richard Gaskin via use-livecode <
> >> use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> Tom Glod wrote:
> >>>
> >>> > Hey Peeps... so I'm stress testing a clipboard tool I have been
> >>> > working on .....and copying a large key from the clipboard array into
> >>> > a variable (such as the king james bible from the guttenberg project)
> >>> > takes a really long time.
> >>>
> >>> What is the size? It's been a long time since I worked with that file.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> > like 3 or 4 seconds ....(for each key)
> >>> >
> >>> > its a large string...but thats crazy.
> >>> >
> >>> > I'm copying from "the clipboarddata" ... not rawdata or fulldata.
> >>> >
> >>> > should i report bug? or is there a legit reason why this is so?
> >>>
> >>> Depends.  That's a very rare use case, one not likely optimized for by
> >>> many apps, or even the OS.
> >>>
> >>> So one way to get a feel for whether LC is indeed slow there is to
> >>> compare
> >>> with another program:
> >>>
> >>> How long does it take to copy with the file is opened in Word?
> >>> And from WordPad?
> >>> Might also get comparisons with any other program you have lying around
> >>> that can be used for that.
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>>  Richard Gaskin
> >>>
> >>
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