keyIdentifier and key events

Hi.

I see the latest drafts of DOM 3 Events no longer have keyIdentifier in  
key events.

Why was the feature dropped ?

There are very important use cases that it covers, mostly related with not  
relying on magic key codes which even are different between different  
event types (keydown vs. keypress).

Currently, content pretty much expects a set of standard key codes for the  
standard computer keyboard we use. However, this is not a reliable long  
term strategy if new keyboard like devices need new key codes or key types.

For instance, with the rise of content for TV, there is the need to  
identify the keys on a remote (Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Play, Pause,  
Stop, Menu, etc) and that would be far more achievable if it did not rely  
on hardware or platform specific virtual key codes. There are also people  
talking about interest in the Gamepad API and it makes sense to have  
keyIdentifier as well (A, B, Z, X, Select, Start, Circle, Square,  
Triangle, L1, R1, etc.). And there can be some overlap with the already  
popular media keys on desktop keyboard (play, pause, open email). I did  
see some time ago that the specification had the keyIdentifier values for  
TV remotes, but not anymore.

Thank you.

Received on Thursday, 24 November 2011 13:28:18 UTC