XtSetSelectionParameters(3)

✨ XtSetSelectionParameters ✨

okay bestie, so this one is from the XT FUNCTIONS corner of libXt — it's XtSetSelectionParameters, and it's literally the little pre-game ritual you do before you ask for a selection. 💅

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💖 NAME 💖

XtSetSelectionParameters — specify target parameters for a selection request with a single target. periodt. 🎯

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🌸 SYNTAX 🌸

#include <X11/Intrinsic.h>

void XtSetSelectionParameters(Widget requestor, Atom selection, Atom
       type, XtPointer value, unsigned long length, int format);

no cap, that's the whole signature. 🫶

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🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

• requestor — the widget that's making the request. it must be of class Core or any subclass of it, fr fr. like if it's not Core-flavored, we can't do this.
• selection — the atom that names the selection you're going after. 🦋
• type — the type of the property that your parameters are gonna get passed around in.
• value — a pointer to the parameters themselves. this is your content, your moment. ✨
• length — how many elements of data live in value, and each element is sized according to format.
• format — the size in bits of the data in the elements of value. it's giving very specific.

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💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

so here's the tea: the parameters you specified get copied and stored in a brand-new property of the specified type and format, sitting pretty on the requestor's window. 💖

then, to actually kick off a selection request with a target plus these parameters, you make a subsequent call to XtGetSelectionValue or XtGetSelectionValueIncremental with the same requestor widget and selection atom — that's what generates a ConvertSelection request referring referring to the property containing the parameters. (yes, "referring referring" — that's what the page says, i don't make the rules, i just report them 😭)

and lowkey important: if you call XtSetSelectionParameters more than once with the same widget and selection, without a call to specify a request in between, then the most recently specified parameters are the ones used in the subsequent request. newest wins, always. 👑

the possible values of format may be 8, 16, or 32. if the format is 8, the elements of value are assumed to be sizeof(char); if 16, sizeof(short); if 32, sizeof(long). those three, that's the whole menu, don't try anything else. 🚫

now for the MULTIPLE target situation — if you wanna generate a MULTIPLE target request with parameters for any of the multiple targets of the selection request, here's the choreography:

1. precede individual calls to XtGetSelectionValue and XtGetSelectionValueIncremental with corresponding individual calls to XtSetSelectionParameters
2. and enclose these all within XtCreateSelectionRequest and XtSendSelectionRequest

that's the whole dance. 💃

⚠️ heads up bestie: XtGetSelectionValues and XtGetSelectionValuesIncremental cannot be used to make selection requests with parameterized targets. like, at all. not a vibe. sorry. 💀

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• XtGetSelectionParameters(3)
• X Toolkit Intrinsics - C Language Interface
• Xlib - C Language X Interface

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mwah 💋 that's the whole page — brought to you by X Version 11, libXt 1.3.1, and the date on the original footer. go slay your selection requests, bestie, you've got this 👑✨