At present (in the X11 version of arcem at least) you
can click the mouse while it is not 'attached'. So
while the pointer doesn't move, you can send mouse
clicks to the Archimedes.
A more useful behaviour would be that when the mouse is
clicked but it's not attached, arcem pops up a dialogue
box with a reminder that to attach the mouse you press
+ on the numeric keypad. Alternatively you could
decide that the mouse automatically attaches when the
user clicks in the arcem window (and detaches when the
pointer moves outside that window). Either of these
changes would make the interface more idiot-proof and
reduce the need to RTFM before starting to play with arcem.
Note: The majority of Macs don't have a numeric keypad so the current default key is a real pain.