Thanks all for the responses. At least I know now that this is another good feature gone bad.
In doing custom graphics and dynamics I like to work with an explicit written specification, which I edit and reevaluate as I develop the presentation. With the graphics part I try to deal directly with the graphics primitives. I almost always use a DynamicModule rather than Manipulate. I find this much easier and more flexible than using features such as Drawing Tools. (But to each his own.) GetCoordinates is the one feature that is useful for positioning Text annotations within a graphic.
As for returning the coordinates of a single point, I recognize Sander's comparison with the output of the various Solve routines. But with a copy and paste operation I think the context is different and I really think it would be nice not to have to edit the paste.
The following palette contains a button that will, if you're fortunate enought to get a pasted result, fix it to give the proper expression for a single coordinate.
CreatePalette[
Button["FixCoordinatePaste",
Module[{nb, work, newExpression},
nb = InputNotebook[];
work = ToExpression[NotebookRead[nb]];
newExpression = ToExpression /@ Flatten[work];
NotebookWrite[nb, ToBoxes@newExpression];
]
],
WindowTitle -> "Paste Edit",
WindowMargins -> {{Automatic, Automatic}, {Automatic, Automatic}},
Saveable -> False];
