RawKeyboard class

An interface for listening to raw key events.

This class is deprecated and will be removed at a future date. The HardwareKeyboard class is its replacement.

Raw key events pass through as much information as possible from the underlying platform's key events, which makes them provide a high level of fidelity but a low level of portability.

A RawKeyboard is useful for listening to raw key events and hardware buttons that are represented as keys. Typically used by games and other apps that use keyboards for purposes other than text entry.

These key events are typically only key events generated by a hardware keyboard, and not those from software keyboards or input method editors.

Compared to HardwareKeyboard

Behavior-wise, RawKeyboard provides a less unified, less regular event model than HardwareKeyboard. For example:

• Down events might not be matched with an up event, and vice versa (the set of pressed keys is silently updated).
• The logical key of the down event might not be the same as that of the up event.
• Down events and repeat events are not easily distinguishable (must be tracked manually).
• Lock modes (such as CapsLock) only have their "enabled" state recorded. There's no way to acquire their pressing state.

See also:

• RawKeyDownEvent and RawKeyUpEvent, the classes used to describe specific raw key events.
• RawKeyboardListener, a widget that listens for raw key events.
• SystemChannels.keyEvent, the low-level channel used for receiving events from the system.
• HardwareKeyboard, the recommended replacement.