toSpec method

String toSpec()

Converts this KeyEvent to a specification string.

This is the inverse of KeyEvent.fromString. Outputs generic modifier names in canonical order: ctrl+alt+shift+super+hyper+meta

A keystroke has one identity, so shift is folded into the character it produces rather than kept as a separate modifier: Shift+A is 'A', Shift+1 is '!' — never 'shift+a' or 'shift+1'. Named keys are the exception: they keep shift explicit, so Shift+Tab is 'shift+tab'.

Folding a cased letter is always safe — 'a' becomes 'A' regardless of layout. Folding a symbol is only safe when the parser actually knows what shift produced (the terminal reported Kitty's alternate "shifted key"). On a terminal that disambiguates escape codes but doesn't report alternate keys, Shift+1 arrives as the base character '1' plus a shift modifier with no way to know the produced symbol ('!' on a US layout, something else elsewhere) — folding would guess, so the spec keeps the explicit modifier and stays 'shift+1'.

Does not encode: eventType, baseLayoutKey, keyPad, capsLock, text. Use toBaseLayoutSpec for a projection onto the base (US) layout key.

Examples:

  • KeyEvent.fromString('backSpace').toSpec() → 'backSpace'
  • KeyEvent.fromString('ctrl+a').toSpec() → 'ctrl+a'
  • KeyEvent(KeyCode.named(KeyCodeName.leftCtrl)).toSpec() → 'ctrl'

Implementation

String toSpec() => _buildSpec(code, modifiers, charIsProduced: code.shiftProduced);