Unified, cross-platform Clipboard type

[just-ero]

Description

Currently, there exist the System.Windows.Clipboard and System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard types, which, of course, are only available on Windows. They also require enabling the UseWpf or UseWindowsForms MSBuild properties in the project.
A single cross-platform equivalent in the base library would introduce the ability to get and set the data in the user's clipboard regardless of the type of app being written and regardless of the OS being targeted.

I don't know the intricacies of clipboards on other operating systems, so the implementation may be a lot more daunting than I anticipate. It may also be relevant to know what versions of a certain OS support which clipboard features.

Public API Changes

namespace Microsoft.Maui;

public static class Clipboard
{
    public static void Clear();

    public static T Get<T>() where T : unmanaged;
    public static void Set<T>(T value) where T : unmanaged;

    public static byte[] GetData();
    public static void SetData(ReadOnlySpan<byte> data);

    public static Stream GetDataStream();
    public static void SetDataStream(Stream dataStream);

    public static string GetString();
    public static void SetString(string value);

    public static byte[] GetAudio();
    public static void SetAudio(ReadOnlySpan<byte> audio);

    public static Stream GetAudioStream();
    public static void SetAudioStream(Stream audioStream);

    public static byte[] GetImage();
    public static void SetImage(ReadOnlySpan<byte> image);

    public static Stream GetImageStream();
    public static void SetImageStream(Stream imageStream);

    public static string GetFile();
    public static void SetFile(string path);

    public static Stream GetFileStream();
    public static void SetFileStream(Stream fileStream);

    public static string[] GetFiles();
    public static void SetFiles(ReadOnlySpan<string> paths);
}

Intended Use-Case

Clipboard.SetString("Hello, world!");

string str = Clipboard.GetString();

[just-ero]

This issue was moved from dotnet/runtime, as this was deemed "UI-related" (how?). Unfortunately that means we will still not get a first-party cross-platform clipboard API that supports Linux, but I guess it's a start...

[jfversluis]

For .NET MAUI we already have a cross-platform clipboard: https://learn.microsoft.com/dotnet/maui/platform-integration/data/clipboard.

As we don't have Linux support, it won't work there. If this is something you'd like to get in the .NET runtime, maybe you can see if you can get a hold of the person that moved it and explain a bit better what you are after. I think this is not very relevant here unfortunately. Is that something I can help you with?

I'd hate to send you back and forth between teams and things, but I also don't want to have this issue here lingering around. If this is something I can help you connect with someone, please reach out on my email that you can find in my GitHub profile. Thanks!

[just-ero]

@jfversluis Thanks for the reply. I opened the issue without first checking whether such a type exists, sorry.

The issue in question was dotnet/runtime#115041. A Clipboard type which can be used independently of all of the UI frameworks is what I'm after. Any non-UI library or console app may want to interact with the clipboard. Such libraries or console apps should work on all platforms. Something like that is not possible today with the existing first-party clipboard implementations.

[just-ero]

@jfversluis Have you been able to move the discussion of this proposal somewhere more appropriate?