Groups > comp.lang.java.programmer > #39415

How can I read individual keystrokes?

From	Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.java.programmer
Subject	How can I read individual keystrokes?
Date	2020-04-05 00:17 +0000
Organization	A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID	<r6b830$hra$1@dont-email.me> (permalink)

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I have a need to read individual key presses as they are made. I'm 
developing this stuff under Linux with OpenJava 1.8 and would prefer a 
portable Java solution if that's possible.

I have a working solution, but its ugly. A small C program captures the 
one or more characters emitted as a key is pressed and sends them 
individually to my Java application over a local network session.

I've also tried using the Reader.read() method of the Reader instance 
returned by calling Console.reader() but that uses line buffering 
internally. As a result the Java code doesn't get sent anything until I 
hit RETURN, when all the characters typed since the last RETURN are sent, 
followed by the LF, so is of no use here.

Also, there's a good chance that the C program is using OS-specific 
features to let it capture individual keystrokes.

I have a feeling that I'm missing something obvious and so would 
appreciate it if any of you can point me in the direction of a pure Java 
way to capture individual key presses.
 

-- 
Martin    | martin at
Gregorie  | gregorie dot org

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Thread

How can I read individual keystrokes? Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> - 2020-04-05 00:17 +0000
  Re: How can I read individual keystrokes? Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2020-04-04 20:38 -0400
  Re: How can I read individual keystrokes? Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2020-04-04 22:04 -0400
    Re: How can I read individual keystrokes? Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> - 2020-04-05 11:22 +0000

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