The Clipboard

One of the most useful and convenient user interface mechanisms of graphical user interface environments (such as Windows and the X Window System) is cut and paste. You select some data in one program and cut or copy them to the clipboard. Then, you select another program and paste the clipboard contents into that application. Using the clipboard, you can transfer text, images, or other data from one document to another, or, of course, from one place in a document to another place in the same document. Cut and paste is so natural that most computer users never think about it.

However, JDK 1.0 did not support cut and paste. JDK 1.1 implemented a rudimentary clipboard mechanism. That mechanism has been gradually improved and is now ...

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