Clipboards + Meaning

[David E. Manifold]

On 9 Dec 1997, Eric W. Biederman wrote:

> So when you have a type of data you understand.  Say a picture.  You
> develop an API for manipulating pictures.  For each type of picture
> you develop a shared library implementing the picture API.  Then when
> you put the picture in the clipboard you put a pointer to the shared
> library that implements the picture API in the clipboard also.  Then
> anyone who can deal with pictures can deal with it.
> 
> Or more simply you make a system wide object system available.  Make
> lots of standard and semistandard object types.  Then you can
> communicate more clearly, by passing both the message/object, and how
> to understand the message (it's type).
> 
> Right?

Yes, the second is better.  The problem with current APIs is that they
usually have a low level static interface.  When you do as you said, when
you make a system-wide object system available, the interface for all APIs
can be as high level as the object system. 

David E. Manifold
tril@bespin.ml.org