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View Full Version : 2.1 Software Breaks OpenClip Framework

Edward Kirk
August 22nd, 2008, 01:50 PM
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Zak White's open-source copy and paste framework OpenClip was a very ingenious solution to what seemed like an impossible problem, but as great as it would be to finally have copy and paste for at least some apps, it has been found that OpenClip's inevitable drawback keeps it from working in the upcoming 2.1 firmware update. <!--break-->

John Gruber of <a href="http://daringfireball.net/2008/08/raining_on_the_openclip_parade" target="_blank">Daring Fireball</a> makes some good points. The problem lies in how it manages to share the "copied" information between different applications. The FAQ's on OpenClip claimed that it saves information on some shared spot on the drive, but that's not actually the case. OpenClip actually shares the clipped information within the documents of the app that it was saved in, and then leaves it up to the next app to retrieve it to be pasted.

With the 2.0.x software, this isn't a big problem because apps still have the ability to read the files of their neighboring apps. However, it turns out that Apple is closing the sandbox in the upcoming 2.1 software. That means that apps will no longer be able to access the copied information from other apps, breaking OpenClip.

Still, Zak says that despite this, he hopes that OpenClip's release will help show users how useful it could be, and to convince Apple to take steps to get a viable copy and paste solution on the iPhone.</div>
Unregistered
August 22nd, 2008, 04:03 PM
So, other applications can see other apps info ... does this mean that maybe passwords to user accounts can be 'seen' too? ...
freynolds
August 22nd, 2008, 04:14 PM
why not save it into the internet in a session cloud?

each iphone that posts into a website that openclip can have and the program retrives the last post or even maybe all posts made from that iphone...
fractured
August 22nd, 2008, 10:54 PM
why not save it into the internet in a session cloud?

each iphone that posts into a website that openclip can have and the program retrives the last post or even maybe all posts made from that iphone...

The big drawbacks to this solution would be a need for signal of some sort for copy/paste to work, and the speed of the OS would be slowed. It wouldn't be a big lag unless you had connection problems, but many people would likely view this as unacceptable. A better solution would be to have dedicated space in the flash for the string to be saved, but there could be issues with the size of the block and how it would be managed. This wouldn't often be a major issue, but something Apple would have to consider if they plan to implement this solution.
freynolds
August 23rd, 2008, 11:23 AM
The big drawbacks to this solution would be a need for signal of some sort for copy/paste to work, and the speed of the OS would be slowed. It wouldn't be a big lag unless you had connection problems, but many people would likely view this as unacceptable. A better solution would be to have dedicated space in the flash for the string to be saved, but there could be issues with the size of the block and how it would be managed. This wouldn't often be a major issue, but something Apple would have to consider if they plan to implement this solution.

OS speed depends completely on how is programed... for example mobile chat hangs each time it retrieves the full contacts list because it was bad programed... GUI programing and Connection programing should be two different threads and they should not interfere with each other.
The same should happen with an open clip environment, when you go into the program and you select open clip tool, it should sync the open clip db of this program with the user profile and download whatever is in the clip.

Its not hard, the system can be run over php/sql asp/mssql or whatever you need and the load should be very low.

Also this way you could even copy things on your mac/pc and paste them on the instant on your iphone, or the other way arround!