using PRIMARY and CLIPBOARD w/o using the mouse

[James H. Cloos Jr.]

Using a laptop has me a bit spoiled by having the handy track stick
between the GH&B keys, and buttons just below -- and just as easily
thumbed as -- the spacebar.

Reaching for the rodent is a RFPITA.

In X, using the GUI, is there a command that will copy the region
between current and point to PRIMARY, SECONDARY and/or CLIPBOARD?

My searches through info, docstrings and the (lisp) src hasn't
hit on any.

It looks as though I need something like this:

(defun my-x-selection (beg end)
  "select between point and current into PRIMARY"
  (interactive "r")
  (let ((data (list (buffer-substring beg end)))
        (type (if (not current-prefix-arg) 'PRIMARY 'CLIPBOARD)))
  (if data
    (x-own-selection-internal type data)
    (x-disown-selection-internal type))))


(The idea is that it should copy to CLIPBOARD if prefix arg, else to PRIMARY.)

Any thoughts on improving that?

-JimC