Keystrokes : Java Glossary

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Keystrokes
It can be difficult to explain to someone over the phone what keys to hit to get the effect they need. One dear woman spelled out the word E N T E R when I wanted her to hit the [Enter] key. Here are the conventions I used to make this clear. When I want to make it clear I am talking about a single key I will sometimes enclose it in brackets, e.g.
[BackSpace] [space bar]

When I want you to press two keys at once I use a + sign, e.g.

[ctrl]+S
That means press [Ctrl] and hold it down, tap the S key, then release the [Ctrl] key. It won’t work if you try to press both keys down exactly at once as if you were playing a piano chord.

The famous reboot sequence:

[Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Delete]
means press [Ctrl] and hold it down, press [Alt] and hold it down, tap [Delete], let go of [Alt] and [Ctrl]. You may let go of [Alt] and [Ctrl] in either order or exactly simultaneously. For writing keystroke documentation for novices it would be nice to have a font that made it clear that [BackSpace] was a single key. It would be a single glyph that looked like a key. I have not yet found one.

KeyStroke Name Gotchas

KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(String) and (String) KeyEvent.getKeyText() are inconsistent in the way they name keystrokes. Further getModifiersText() is also incompatible with KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(String). For example, getKeytext calls a key Enter where getKeyStroke insists it be called ENTER. You can’t simply convert all to upper case, since getKeyStroke wants the word control etc. in lower case. Also watch out for space. It is simpler to use serialisation, but then you the log file will not be human-readable. You need to generate your own names because of the following incompatibilities:
getKeyStroke or VK_xxxx getKeyText
ACCEPT "Accept"
ADD "NumPad +"
AGAIN "Again"
ALL_CANDIDATES "All Candidates"
ALPHANUMERIC "Alphanumeric"
ALT "Alt"
ALT_GRAPH "Alt Graph"
AMPERSAND "Ampersand"
ASTERISK "Asterisk"
AT "At"
BACK_QUOTE "Back Quote"
BACK_SLASH "\"
BACK_SPACE "Backspace"
BRACELEFT "Left Brace"
BRACERIGHT "Right Brace"
CANCEL "Cancel"
CAPS_LOCK "Caps Lock"
CIRCUMFLEX "Circumflex"
CLEAR "Clear"
CLOSE_BRACKET "]"
CODE_INPUT "Code Input"
COLON "Colon"
COMMA ","
COMPOSE "Compose "
CONTROL "Ctrl"
CONVERT "Convert"
COPY "Copy"
DEAD_ABOVEDOT "Dead Above Dot"
DEAD_ABOVERING "Dead Above Ring"
DEAD_ACUTE "Dead Acute"
DEAD_BREVE "Dead Breve"
DEAD_CARON "Dead Caron"
DEAD_CEDILLA "Dead Cedilla"
DEAD_CIRCUMFLEX "Dead Circumflex"
DEAD_DIAERESIS "Dead Diaeresis"
DEAD_DOUBLEACUTE "Dead Double Acute"
DEAD_GRAVE "Dead Grave"
DEAD_IOTA "Dead Iota"
DEAD_MACRON "Dead Macron"
DEAD_OGONEK "Dead Ogonek"
DEAD_SEMIVOICED_SOUND "Dead Semivoiced Sound"
DEAD_TILDE "Dead Tilde"
DEAD_VOICED_SOUND "Dead Voiced Sound"
DECIMAL "NumPad ."
DELETE "Delete"
DIVIDE "NumPad /"
DOLLAR "Dollar"
DOWN "Down"
END "End"
ENTER "Enter"
EQUALS "="
ESCAPE "Escape"
EURO_SIGN "Euro"
EXCLAMATION_MARK "Exclamation Mark"
FINAL "Final"
FIND "Find"
FULL_WIDTH "Full-Witdh"
GREATER "Greater"
HALF_WIDTH "Half-Witdh"
HELP "Help"
HIRAGANA "Hiragana"
HOME "Home"
INPUT_METHOD_ON_OFF "Input Method On/Off"
INSERT "Insert"
INVERTED_EXCLAMATION_MARK "Inverted Exclamation Mark"
JAPANESE_HIRAGANA "Japanese Hiragana"
JAPANESE_KATAKANA "Japanese Katakana"
JAPANESE_ROMAN "Japanese Roman"
KANA "Kana"
KANA_LOCK "Kana Lock"
KANJI "Kanji"
KATAKANA "Katakana"
KP_DOWN "Down"
KP_LEFT "Left"
KP_RIGHT "Right"
KP_UP "Up"
LEFT "Left"
LEFT_PARENTHESIS "Left Parenthesis"
LESS "Less"
META "Meta"
MINUS "Minus"
MODECHANGE "Mode Change"
MULTIPLY "NumPad *"
NONCONVERT "No Convert"
NUM_LOCK "Num Lock"
NUMBER_SIGN "Number Sign"
NUMPAD0 "NumPad-0"
NUMPAD1 "NumPad-1"
NUMPAD2 "NumPad-2"
NUMPAD3 "NumPad-3"
NUMPAD4 "NumPad-4"
NUMPAD5 "NumPad-5"
NUMPAD6 "NumPad-6"
NUMPAD7 "NumPad-7"
NUMPAD8 "NumPad-8"
NUMPAD9 "NumPad-9"
OPEN_BRACKET "["
PAGE_DOWN "Page Down"
PAGE_UP "Page Up"
PASTE "Paste"
PAUSE "Pause"
PERIOD "."
PLUS "Plus"
PREVIOUS_CANDIDATE "Previous Candidate"
PRINTSCREEN "Print Screen"
PROPS "Props"
QUOTE "Quote"
QUOTEDBL "Double Quote"
RIGHT "Right"
RIGHT_PARENTHESIS "Right Parenthesis"
ROMAN_CHARACTERS "Roman Characters"
SCROLL_LOCK "Scroll Lock"
SEMICOLON ";"
SEPARATER (Why can’t programmers spell that word?) "NumPad ,"
SHIFT "Shift"
SLASH "/"
SPACE "Space"
STOP "Stop"
SUBTRACT "NumPad -"
TAB "Tab"
UNDERSCORE "Underscore"
UNDO "Undo"
UP "Up"
DSK
Keyboard Illustrator Student Project
keystroke events
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