emilk/egui

Tracking issue: improve Key input

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#3,653 opened on Nov 28, 2023

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 (23 comments) (6 reactions) (0 assignees)Rust (29,051 stars) (2,037 forks)batch import
Tracking issueeframeeguigood first issuehelp wanted

Description

The keyboard input in egui is limited in a couple of ways:

  • Lots of keys missing from Event::Key
  • We don't report the super/meta modifier key
  • We don't report modifier key presses (just their state)
  • Physical keys not reported on the eframe web backend
  • KeyboardShortcut should ignore shift and alt keys for logical keys (e.g. Ctrl Plus may require pressing shift on some keyboards). See https://github.com/emilk/egui/issues/3626 for more

How can I help?

  • Look at the code for egui::Key and follow the instructions there for adding new keys
  • Investigate if we can get physical keycode on web

Requested keys

Prioir art

Relevant issues

Physical vs Logical keys

Consider someone owning a physical QWERTY keyboard:

However, they have remapped it to use Dvorak (perhaps even repainting the text on their keyboard):

If they start hitting Caps Lock and then moving to the left, the keys they will be hitting will be

  • physical (qwerty): CapsLock, A, S, D, F, …
  • logical (Dvorak): CapsLock, A, O, E, U …

The logical keys makes sense for most keyboard shortcuts - if you say "Press Cmd+S to save" in your UI, the user will be looking for the logical key "S" The physical keys are mostly useful for games, where e.g. te physical WSAD on QWERTY moves a character, no matter what the users keymap is.

Contributor guide

Tech stack
rust
Domain
frontend
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-2 days
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
fresh
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
mostly clear
Prerequisites
Basic Rust knowledgeFamiliarity with egui event system
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
60
Research direction
This tracking issue outlines several improvements to keyboard input in egui. To contribute, start by examining the `egui::Key` enum in the source code (likely in `crates/egui/src/input state.rs`). The issue lists specific missing keys like Numpad, Volume, and curly brackets. Follow the instructions in the enum to add new keys. For physical key support on web, investigate if the browser's KeyboardEvent provides keyCode or code properties. The priority is to add the requested keys first. Review linked PRs like #3649 for context on physical vs logical keys.