Re: emacs -nw: share mouse cut & pastes from other X windows

[Richard Stallman]

    Not really.  It would have been possible (and much, much preferable, in
    my view), to add a new mechanism for Emacs to interact with the X cut
    buffer, instead of changing the behavior of the kill ring.

That would have made the interface more complex, meaning more for the
user to remember.  Not good for beginners, I believe.