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Comment by ad_hominem | Hacker News Reader

> On a Mac, you can cut/copy/paste using predictable keystrokes in any application, anywhere

Interesting, because Linux is my daily driver, and when I borrow my spouse's MacBook one of the things I get tripped up on is some programs seem to use Ctrl+C/V and other programs use Command+C/V for copying/pasting

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All Mac apps use the Command (⌘) key for copy/paste.

I've never encountered an app that uses Ctrl. A developer would really have to go out of their way to accomplish this in their app, since the copy/paste menus are provided by Cocoa; the keyboard shortcuts are essentially built into the OS.

Unless they're X11 apps, those use whatever they feel like.

Of course — the same can be said for terminal programs or Windows apps run via virtualization. Those are not "Mac apps".

But at this point the situation is the same as on linux. I've never encountered anything on linux that didn't use ctrl-c for copy other than terminal apps.

The situation on macOS is that you can copy text from Terminal the same way you copy text from Safari. You can edit text in iTunes the same way you edit text in your shell.

Sure. So each platform has different exceptions, but my point was they both have exceptions. The terminal is an exception on linux, but not on macOS. Other apps are apparently exceptions on MacOS, but those same ones probably aren't exceptions on Linux. The exact apps are different but the overall situation is the same.

Using a terminal on Linux is common. Using X11 on macOS is not.

so what is a "Mac app"?

A GUI program that uses native APIs to display windows and menus.

Actually I was misremembering. I was thinking of the Terminal app and having to use Ctrl+A/E to go to beginning/end of line. But jumping words uses Alt+arrow keys. And copy/paste is Cmd+C/V. I find the mixing of the modifier keys really unintuitive as a Mac noob.

Interesting, I don't know a single program on OS X which supports Ctrl+C/V for copy&paste but does not support Command+C/V (indeed, I know only a tiny set of programs that support Ctrl-C/V at all, mostly cross platform software that is badly adapted to OS X).

Out of curiosity, could you name an example or two?

One example I’ve found is the trading software for Interactive Brokers. It’s a Java application with mostly custom (and fairly clunky) UI, and it has other Windows-isms like adding an icon to the desktop when you install it.

Wait what?

What programs are you using that use Ctrl for clipboard actions? Do they also allow their Cmd equivalents, or are they just using the wrong keys?

As far as I remember, Terminal, iTerm2.

Just double checked — neither iTerm not Terminal allow the Ctrl modifier for clipboard operations. In fact, terminal applications are _precisely_ the applications I use to argue that Cmd-X/C/V is overall nicer, as they don't interfere with the usual meaning of the Ctrl modifier as a way to produce control characters (which are especially useful in the context of a terminal)

Hm, perhaps you're right, it was some time ago I used a Mac, sorry for the confusion. There was something with Emacs also which was weird on the mac with modifier keys but I don't exactly remember what.

I've only see this in parallels when using a windows application.

So if you have windows office because it has traditionally been better than the one offered to mac you'd have to remember to use control instead of command.

VMware Fusion even translates the macOS shortcuts.

inkscape

(runs under x11, does not support cmd-c/v)

Ctrl would be an artifact of a port from another platform because Ctrl is closer to a Meta key on a Mac (Option is closest to Alt from a PC though). Command is the generally accepted one though. I can’t think of anything that uses Ctrl-based stuff on a Mac besides possibly IntelliJ and that’s only with PC compatibility keybinds enabled.

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