Easy way to get the X selection (as text)?

[Sean 'Shaleh' Perry]

On 07-Mar-2001 Christopher Arndt wrote:
> I skimmed the docs of most X GUI modules for python on how to retrieve
> the X selection, but this seems to be a non-trivial task. Is there an
> easy way to do this, without having to use tkinter (don't want a useless
> window) or is there a ready-to-use module for this?
> 
> I want to write a little utility for openening urls I have selected in
> some window.
> 

It isn't trivial.  I wrote a command line app in C to do this, around 50 lines
or so.  Mail me at shaleh at via.net and i will mail it to you.  I do not have it
with me currently.