A modern programming language that makes developers happier.

kotlinlang

I also tried the onKeyPressed field, tho it doesn't take a lambda assignment, with a separate Handler class.

Hmmm. I added a mouseevent handler for clicking, that requests focus when I click. When I do this, the pane has the focus, and the keyevent fires correctly. So perhaps my question is how to requestFocus from the beginning?

Perhaps `requestFocus` from the JavaFX `Node` type can help? The docs indicate a caveat that "the node must be part of a scene and all of it's ancestors must be shown" so timing might be weird depending on when you call it.

Thanks. I should have posted the answer i guessed at and worked: handle the stage's WindowEvent.SHOWN and call the pane's `requestFocus()`then.