Yeah, it's really challenging to figure out where your key presses are gonna go.
Not only that, but it requires the human to do a fine-motor click just to -gain focus-. Most of Pharo's focus problems can be solved by simply flipping two preferences: Keyboard focus on mouse down ::: set it false (instead of true) Lose keyboard focus when mouse leave ::: set it true (instead of false) This will bring "power of pointing" to the hand. By default, pointing means *nothing* in Pharo -- only a click will cause anything to happen in the UI. But wouldn't it be nice to have a "mid-gesture", simply a gross twitch of the mouse to be associated with focus? It solves the issues you and I raised. If you have a Lenovo laptop (with trackpoint) its absolutely fantastic. Otherwise, it is a bit harder to get accustomed to at first because it will feel like a lot of back-and-forth between keyboard and mouse -- but the mouse gestures are quick and rough. Once accustomed, going back to a "click-for-focus" reveals how much extra energy that configuration requires to operate.