copy/paste : Java Glossary

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copy/paste

In most Windows apps, you can copy a snippet of selected text to the clipboard with Ctrl-C. You can then paste it somewhere else with Ctrl-V. You can copy and delete in one operation with Ctrl-X. Java AWT (Advanced Windowing Toolkit) apps and Applets support copy/paste without writing any code, as do Java Swing apps.

Ostensibly to close security holes, As of JDK (Java Development Kit) 1.6.0_24, Java Swing JApplets do not support copy/paste, (Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V in Windows) unless you sign the Applet.

You can access the clipboard as a whole in signed Swing JApplets using code similar to this ClipboardPoker code part of the common18 package.

Making Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V Work Again

What can you do to make ordinary Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V work with unsigned Swing Applets in JDK 1.6.0_24+?

Why did Oracle do this?

Here is my speculation: Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V should be completely safe. The program cannot use them to sneakily peek at the clipboard without the user knowing. They are handled without application program involvement. However, Copy/Paste menu buttons can, since the program intervenes and can trigger the same actions even without user input. It could be handled two ways. Let Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V work always and the buttons only work when signed, or they could have everything work only when signed. Oracle chose consistency over convenience.


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