Thanks for the latest comments. I thought I should clarify this:

AS
> > Perhaps I don't need this
> > because I set focus to follow mouse always?

SL

> Yes! It sounds to me like your interface usage is primarily mouse, but
> with some hotkeys thrown in for extra efficiency.

Not really. I like to stick with the keyboard as long as possible. But
there are exceptions. E.g. in the past I did some programming (using pop11
in poplog) that included running a simulation that was under development,
in a graphical window where use of mouse was part of the demonstration
(e.g. showing how a simulated sheepdog would notice and react to a sheep
moved by the mouse).

During interactive development and debugging (a feature of pop11's
incremental compiler) it was often useful to have the text window with code
to drive the simulation, and the larger interactive graphical window partly
covering the text window.

I wanted to be able to type into the partly covered window, e.g. to edit
code or give commands to the program, while retaining the option to use the
mouse to interact with the display -- moving objects, clicking on buttons,
moving sliders, etc.

It would have been intolerable to always have to bring the text window to
the top in order to provide text input. So in that context, the mouse was
used to interact with the program being tested and demonstrated and also
used to change input focus between the test/demo window and the partly
covered text window.

In most other contexts, e.g. editing latex source in a text window and
every now and again viewing the formatted PDF file generated from the text,
I don't need to use the mouse and can use keyboard to write the file and
generate pdf, and if needed, to raise and lower the editor window.

I also don't know any way to use keyboard to select and paste text between
applications, e.g. from a text file in the editor to a web browser window,
or vice versa.

I am puzzled by this:

[AS]
> > This means that Meta + Left arrow goes one way round the windows in
> > the current workspace and Meta + Right goes the other way. Surely
> > easy to remember?

[SL]
> It would seem so. And I had similar (but better and faster
> ergonomically) hotkeys for the same functionalities. I thought for sure
> my fingers would get used to it. But they never did, after a solid
> month of everyday (everyminute, actually) use.

That it did not work despite those features sounds very strange.

Feel free to try my version in case it has a different effect on your
hippocampus, or whatever!

Best wishes.

Aaron
http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~axs

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