> OK, if what I've described is trifling, what do you call, > if anything? One full step out of the box, two, three, never?

I think it depends on the particular game and circumstance, like always.

If the keeper comes out of the PA to reach a ball coming towards him just before the onrushing forward gets there, that's one thing. That's a contest to see who will get the ball first, and the PA line is an important controlling factor that stronly influences the GK's total strategy, depending on whether he feels he can reach the ball first or not, inside or outside. If you're going to reach it first inside, you can dive and grab it; outside, you have to position yourself to play it some other way. But if the keeper is distributing the ball upfield, the PA line doesn't have that role. It's more of an arbitrary boundary -- run out and punt, but don't run farther than this; the location of opponents and whether the GK can "get there first" don't enter into it. That makes it a more technical point, which I for one would be more likely to turn a blind eye to. It's all shades of gray, or grey in NZ, no matter how hard we look for the black and white.