Name: eh37734 Date: 02/14/2002


The main problem with the current clipboard is that it does not allow
non-String data to be transferred between VM's, even though the API
allows arbitrary objects to be put on the clipboard. This needs to be
fixed to serialize/deserialize objects for inter VM transfer.

More on the enhancement side, the clipboard does not provide conversions
for common data types. For example, you cannot transfer images between
Java and native applications. We should provide two way conversions for
common data types e.g.:
        - Java Image objects <-> native bitmap formats (BMP, PICT, X pixmap)
        - Styled text <-> RTF or whatever
        - Sound clips <-> native audio format
        - etc etc.

We should also allow Java applications to access unknown data types as a
raw byte stream in case they want to provide their own conversions.
Whatever data exchange formats we provide for the clipboard should also
be supported for drag and drop.


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