2 clipboards ahk script - clipboard

Question

I'm trying to have 2 clipboards (or more), with an ahk script.
Desired behaviour is working with the standard ^v plus !v so it will be 2 clipboards. ^v being the usual one, !v will be the previous content that ^v had.
If I copy 'text1' on clipboard, I will have this as ^v. If I copy 'text2' I will have 'text2' on clipboard with ^v, plus the old 'text1' available with !v, and so on.
This is so far:
lastclip = %clipboard%
!v::
global lastclip
sendclip(lastclip)
return
ClipWaitChange()
ClipWaitChange()
{
While changed=0 {
global lastclip
lastclip = %clipboard%
Sleep 10
}
OnClipboardChange:
changed = 1
return
}
But it returns a blank clipboard or maybe ^v stops working.
Any hints how to do that?
sendclip is just a custom func to send the clipboard contents by keyboard
I tried put lastclip = %clipboard% inside onclipboardchange but it copies the current changed clipboard, so has to be done before that.

Answer 1

I assume your question is of an academic nature. If not, I recommend one of the many Clipboard Managers already out there.
Here's a solution with comments:
lastClip := ""
bufferedClip := Clipboard
OnClipboardChange("clipChangeHandler")
; Note that the ALT key can change focus, better use WIN+V
#v::
; Since we temporarily switch Clipboard's contents,
; we want to ignore the event it will fire
OnClipboardChange("clipChangeHandler", 0)
; I recommend pasting rather than sending
tmpClip := Clipboard
Clipboard := lastClip
Send, ^v
Clipboard := tmpClip
tmpClip := ""
OnClipboardChange("clipChangeHandler")
return
clipChangeHandler(evtInfo) {
global lastClip, bufferedClip
; Check if Clipboard contains actual text
if(evtInfo = 1) {
lastClip := bufferedClip
bufferedClip := Clipboard
}
}
See also OnClipboardChange in AHK docs.
A few remarks:
The event function checks for the event type being (partially) real text, ignoring pure non-text like images and also empty clipboards
clipBuffer always stores the current clipboard and lastClip contains the previous clipboard. You need the buffer variable, since the event doesn't offer something like a previous clipboard
ALT + v can be problematic when working with windows that have a classic menu bar. Hitting ALT (even before releasing it) will often switch focus away from the current control.
I recommend pasting rather than sending. E.g. when there's large text in the clipboard with thousands of words (maybe even put there by another program or simply by mistake), sending each character one by one can take a long time or may even come with other side effects. If you want to Send regardless, at least use SendRaw so that certain characters won't be mistreated as control sequences (e.g. sending #e will open Windows Explorer).
Always consider security aspects of your application. If you (our your password safe e.g.) empty your clipboard to delete sensitive data, your script will still keep an (unencrypted) copy of it, for every other process to see.