[kzrdude]

And input limitations can be resolved by non-terminal UIs (for example like Ctrl+i and Tab being mapped to the same control character in old terminals - that one is solved by newer protocols, but the problems don't end there.)

[rockorager]

Neovim already supports these keys as long as you are using a terminal that supports the Kitty keyboard protocol (Kitty, wezterm, alacritty, foot, ghostty)

[eviks]

also even the newer protocols fail to support modifier sides (left vs right shift)

[rockorager]

Kitty keyboard protocol does indeed support modifier sides.

[eviks]

No it doesn't, and the author rejected the proposal to add them

https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/keyboard-protocol/

Modifiers are encoded as a bit field with:

shift 0b1 (1) alt 0b10 (2) ctrl 0b100 (4) super 0b1000 (8) hyper 0b10000 (16) meta 0b100000 (32) caps_lock 0b1000000 (64) num_lock 0b10000000 (128)

[aumerle]

Yes modifiers are a state, not a key. The kitty keyboard protocol does indeed send events for left and right modifier key press/releas as you can easily see for yourself by running

kitten show-key -m kitty

in a kitty terminal and pressing the left and right modifier keys.

[eviks]

> Yes modifiers are a state, not a key

So why are you talking about a key then??? Kitty doesn't support left/right modifiers unlike proper keybinding handling apps, the left/right presses for non-modifier keys aren't relevant

How would you bind LeftAlt-A to something different from RightAlt-A in Kitty?

[aumerle]

There is no such thing as a left or right modifier STATE in ANY application. All applications, including kitty track only CTRL, SHIFT, ALT, ETC modifier states. left and right alt and control are key events and can be bound in any application supporting the kitty keyboard protocol as key events. If some application tracks a left and right modifier state it has to do so manually using key press and release events, the OS does not supply it any such state.

You seem to be thoroughly confused about what is a modifier and what is a key. Left and right ctrl/alt/shift are KEYS not MODIFIERS. You can track whether they are held down or up by tracking their press and release events just like for any other key.