Henrik,

Well yes, this one *does* have to do with the new focus mechanism.

I personally make constant use of desktop command-keys, and for that 
reason I keep the "mouseOverForKeyboardFocus" preference set to 
*true* in my image; that way, I can always issue any desktop 
command-key by just letting the cursor stray out over open desktop, 
then just hitting cmd-b or cmd-C or cmd-R or cmd-k or whichever 
command I need at the moment, just like in the old days.

Others prefer having sticky keyboard focus (mouseOverForKeyboardFocus 
= false), and instead of using the desktop command keys, they issue 
shift-ESC to get the world menu at any moment, then cleverly type 
into the resulting World menu and its submenus until they get to the 
item they want.  Thus, shift-ESC res <return> will do a 
restore-display (cf cmd-r), and shift-ESC win <ret> me <ret> will 
bring up a Message-Names tool (cf cmd-shift-W).

Clearly, some people can easily get their brains wired to work that 
way, but for me the old regime of having a handful of high-leverage 
desktop command keys that provide one-touch access to a critical set 
of the most frequently-needed tools is still the most empowering.

A hybrid alternative is also available, which allows the user to keep 
mouseOverForKeyboardFocus *false* and yet still issue desktop command 
keys:
first use shift-ESC to bring up the world menu from the keyboard, 
then issue a command-key sequence to that menu.  Thus, shift-ESC 
cmd-r will give you a restore-display, and shift-ESC cmd-shift-W will 
bring up a Message-Names tool.


Cheers,

   -- Scott


At 8:48 AM +0100 4/28/02, Henrik Gedenryd wrote:
>Scott Wallace wrote:
>
>>  Hi, Henrik,
>>
>>  The worst manifestation of the kind of situation you describe was
>>  present for a few months in the image, between the publishing of
>>  update 4722fixScrollbarOnRight-sm.cs in early December 2001 and the
>>  arrival of update 4789scrollBarAgain-dew.cs in March 2002.  Between
>>  those two updates, there was an inappropriately aggressive
>>  comeToFront call in the scrollbar-display code that could make
>>  windows gratuitously leap in front of naked morphs one was
>>  interacting with.
>>
>
>OK, I trust that it works with the latest updates, I had not gone past 4769.
>
>However, the menu keys also prevent desktop shortcuts from working, like
>cmd-w for closing windows and so on. I think this has to do with the new
>focus mechanism (as I thought the above did, heh). Clicking on the
>background doesn't help.
>
>I have no strong preference concerning leaving it on or off. I think that it
>works reasonably well in itself now. I just wanted the bugs to go away...
>
>Henrik