by anonymous1184
The Clipboard is a PITA1, funny thing is that AHK makes it very easy as opposed to what the C++ code is wrapping2, so in theory:
Clipboard := "" ; Ready
Clipboard := "test" ; Set
Send ^v ; GoShould be enough, right? RIGHT? Well is not by a long shot. That's why I try to avoid as much as possible relying on the Clipboard but the truth is that is almost always needed, specially when dealing with large amounts of text.
ClipWait3 proves its helpfulness but also is not enough. Nor any of the approaches that I've seen/tried (including the ones I've wrote). This is an attempt with my best intentions and not an ultimate option but at very least covers all scenarios*.
Note
Race conditions can and might happen as it is a shared memory heap.
I blab way too much and the worst thing is that I'm not a native Speaker so my mind is always in a different place than my words, suffice to say that there are access and timing issues with the operations because, even tho we see just a variable is not; is a whole infrastructure behind controlled by the underlying OS. Enter:
Clip.ahk4 — Clipboard Wrapper
Nothing out of the ordinary and a somewhat basic object but with the little "tricks" (at the lack of a better term) I've picked that have solved the issues at hand.
Prevents messing up if the Clipboard is not accessible and avoids timing problems.
There's no way of detecting when the Paste command starts and when it ends; depends on system load, how much the application cares about user input (as it receives the ^v combo) and its processing time. A while() is used.
The Clipboard is not an AHK resource, is a system-wide shared asset and higher precedence applications can get a hold of it, blocking it and even render it unusable when calamity strikes.
Anyway, the object is small and intuitive:
Clip.LockedIs the only public property, can be used in a conditional to manually check if the Clipboard is in use, otherwise for automatic checking use:
Clip.Check()It throws a catchable Exception if something is wrong. It also tells which application is currently locking the Clipboard.
The rest is self explanatory:
Clip.Backup() ; Manual backup.
Clip.Clear([Backup := true]) ; Empties (automatic backup).
Clip.Get([Backup := true, Wait := 5]) ; Copies (automatic backup).
Clip.Paste([Restore := false]) ; Pastes (optional restore).
Clip.Restore() ; Manual restore.
; Puts data (automatic backup, optionally skip managers).
Clip.Set(Data[, Backup := true, Wait := 1, NoHistory := false])And here is an example, press 1 in Notepad* to see it in action and 2 to for 10 loops of the same:
Note
Is important to be the built-in Notepad as it handles properly the amount of text and the fast nature of the test.
; As fast as possible
ListLines Off
SetBatchLines -1
; Create a .5 MiB worth of text
oneKb := ""
loop 1024
oneKb .= "#"
halfMb := ""
loop 512
halfMb .= oneKb
halfMb .= "`r`n"
; "test data"
Clipboard := "test123test`r`n"
return ; End of auto-execute
#Include <Clip>
1::
Clip.Check() ; Simple check
/*
; Manual check
if (Clip.Locked) {
MsgBox 0x40010, Error, Clipboard inaccessible.
return
}
*/
/*
; Personalized check
try {
Clip.Check()
} catch e {
DetectHiddenWindows On
WinGet path, ProcessPath, % "ahk_id" e.Extra
if (path) {
SplitPath path, file, path
e.Message .= "`nFile:`t" file
e.Message .= "`nPath:`t" path
}
MsgBox 0x40010, Error, % e.Message
Exit ; End the thread
}
*/
Clip.Paste() ; Paste current Clipboard, no restore
Clip.Set(halfMb) ; Fill Clipboard (512kb of text, automatic backup)
Clip.Paste() ; Paste `large` variable contents, no restore
Clip.Restore() ; Restore "test data"
Clip.Paste() ; Paste "test data", no restore
; Type some text and select it
SendInput This is a test{Enter}+{Up}
Sleep 500 ; Wait for it
Clip.Get() ; Copy selection
Clip.Paste() ; Paste selection, no restore
Clip.Paste(true) ; Paste selection, restoring "test data"
Clip.Paste() ; Paste "test data"
SendInput {Enter} ; Blank line
return
2::
loop 10
Send 1
returnYou can put it in your Standard library5 so it can be used anywhere. In any case hope is useful, please let me know about any findings.