Impossible to copy selected audio without copying the entire clip

[SteveDaulton]

Bug description

According to the manual,
"Edit menu > Copy (Ctrl + C)" will copy the selected audio. This is clear and as expected, but is not actually what happens.

Rather than only the selected audio being copied, the entire audio clip is copied.

Steps to reproduce

1. Make a 2 hour stereo recording
2. Select about 1 second of the recording
3. Copy
4. Select the entire track
5. Delete
6. Paste
7. Save Project

Expected behavior

A small saved project less than 1MB in size.

Actual behavior

A huge saved project about 2.5 GB in size, because we did not only copy the 1 second of selected audio but the entire 2 hours.

Audacity Version

current master / alpha / nightly build

Operating system

Linux

Additional context

The principle of least astonishment, one of the most basic rules of good UI design, is violated.

[petersampsonaudacity]

@LWinterberg @Tantacrul @dozzzzer @SteveDaulton

This contrasts strongly with the use case of pasting a selection from a clip or project into a different project.

In this case the user can choose to copy either just the selction or the whole smart clip, enabling them to avoid project-bloat if required.

This is especially an issue as there is no Compact Project command

[SteveDaulton]

I noticed that today, someone enquired about this exact issue on Audacity Discord.

[LWinterberg]

This is a regression on 3.1.3 by the looks of it. In the original design, time selections like this were supposed to not be smart clips. I don't believe this got decided in another way.

[petersampsonaudacity]

In the original design, time selections like this were supposed to not be smart clips

That sounds emminently sensible to me @LWinterberg 👍