OpenClip as we had mentioned earlier, is an open source project to bring copy-paste to the iPhone platform. Everything was going as planned. It would copy the text to memory and retrieve it whenever required. It even worked with the earlier 2.1 beta builds. Many of the official App developers pledged support for this framework and the prospects looked good. 

However, in a recent posting over at Daring Fireball, John Gruber brought to light the fact that Apple has restricted the ability of third party applications to read the contents of the Documents folder of other applications which effectively renders the OpenClip implementation unable to copy data from one app and paste it into another. Zac White, the developer acknowledges that and has posted a confirmation on his blog that, in the latest firmware v2.1 beta, Apple has broken framework, which I think has basically killed the project.

But anyway, lets define breaking:

Apps that use OpenClip will no longer be able to copy and paste between applications. However, applications can still utilize a persistent way to store data inside the application, meaning that copy and paste within the app will still work fine. And on top of that, apps that utilize only one form (either copy or paste) can disable interface elements when Apple axes OpenClip.

The developer(s) aren’t giving up just yet. They are planning some crooked ways of getting this data across, which might involve creating unwanted clutter in your Address Book or using remote network servers for the purpose. But I don’t see either of those as an efficient way of copy-pasting on the iPhone and the developers are thinking along similar lines too. 

Before you go yelling at Apple, however, this drastic step from Apple could mean that copy-paste might just feature in the upcoming 2.1 update (though there’s no indication that Apple actually targeted the OpenClip framework with the v2.1 firmware). With an increase in the number of applications, copy-pasting has become more important than ever on the iPhone, and I would like to believe that Apple is just about adding their finishing touches to that end.