🚀 go-pugleaf

	From: Seth Steinberg <sas@bfly-vax.bbn.com>

	Since I use EMACS, X windows requires using a mouse to switch
	between telnet windows and the editor.

	Is there some way to bind the circulate windows command to one of the
	34 function keys on my SUN keyboard?  I would really like something
	like the Symbolics interface which lets me press a key and then a
	window identifier to quickly select that window.

If his request seems exotic, something's wrong in X-land.

As a matter of principle, you should look most suspiciously at any
functionality which is available from one input device only.
Why must there be a necessary relation between an operation
(e.g., select window) and the means by which it is requested
(e.g., mouse)?

More specifically:  Anything you can do with the mouse,
you should be able to do with the keyboard, and vice versa.

Reasons:
	* Switching between home position on a keyboard and
	  holding a mouse costs time and interruptions in
	  concentration.  The fewer causes for such interruptions
	  the better.
	* Different people prefer or need different interfaces,
	  at different times.  (See Seth's message, and previous reason.)
	* If your system is less than completely reliable,
	  sometimes the keyboard or mouse goes off in the
	  trees, and you need to issue commands to get it back.
	* Greater symmetry makes a system easier to learn and use.

Examples:
Why not a keyboard menu?  If you need just to type a "Y" or "N",
it may be faster to pop up a little keyboard icon and mouse the letter.

The Symbolics system lets you get a window with Mouse-Left,
<Select-L> or via a menu.  John Bruner's UW program selects
window #N via Option-N.

The Apollo mouse position can be modified by cursor keys.
(Yes, I know about the converse proposition on that system:
bumping the mouse makes your cursor jump unexpectedly.
But how come so many of the Apollo DM's excellent features
have not been emulated by other systems?  E.g., in Genera 7
writing a char to a window clobbers your window positioning.
Apollo has a nifty distinction between windows and pads
which cures this bug among many others.)

I'm usually just a listener, but dealing with unnecessarily
asymmetric user interfaces is one of my pet peeves.

				-- John Rose