Extend key patterns and modifiers for command actions

[ridhwaans]

Description of the new feature

source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/terminal/customize-settings/actions#accepted-modifiers

currently, the accepted modifiers allow for ctrl+, shift+, alt+ followed by a single func or alphanumeric key
in settings.json, if i want to perform an action with the keys ctrl+t+n or win+t+q+q, I cannot do that because of the error "String does not match pattern{...}"

I ask for modifier key followed by a combination of function/alphanumeric keys pattern to work on actions

Also, can you make space+ an accepted modifier so patterns like space+g+g can be used?

thanks in advance!

Proposed technical implementation details

make space+ an accepted modifier. allow for an expression with multiple fn/letter/number keys associated with a terminal action

[zadjii-msft]

So, you're asking for two things here:

• part the first: "I want to combine multiple key chords to activate a keybinding" I think that's a /dupe of Support "Key Chords" in keybindings #1334
• part the second: "I want to treat space" as a modifier key: That's probably not reasonably feasible. There's a material API difference in the way Windows thinks about something like Ctrl/Alt/Shift/Win, vs actual keys like space. It would be a non-trivial amount of work for us to treat space as a modifier key. There's a lot of gnarly edge cases there. When is the user pressing space as the start of a keychord vs just pressing and holding space to enter a lot of whitespace?

[microsoft-github-policy-service]

Hi! We've identified this issue as a duplicate of another one that already exists on this Issue Tracker. This specific instance is being closed in favor of tracking the concern over on the referenced thread. Thanks for your report!

[o-sdn-o]

• part the second: "I want to treat space" as a modifier key: That's probably not reasonably feasible. There's a material API difference in the way Windows thinks about something like Ctrl/Alt/Shift/Win, vs actual keys like space. It would be a non-trivial amount of work for us to treat space as a modifier key. There's a lot of gnarly edge cases there. When is the user pressing space as the start of a keychord vs just pressing and holding space to enter a lot of whitespace?

In fact, it is not impossible, and may even be quite feasible. Just relying on the standard system window messages WM_KEYUP/WM_KEYDOWN it is quite possible to distinguish between different key combinations outside the Ctrl/Alt/Shift-modifiers concept on Windows platform.

You can play around with this in vtm by assigning any keyboard chords available to your keyboard device and feel out any inconsistencies like an extra space being typed when using the Space+C chord. For example, you can run the following command to use the Space+C key chord to print a "<Space+C Action>" message in terminal:

vtm -c "<config><hotkeys><terminal><key='Space+C'><action=TerminalSendKey data='<Space+C Action>'/></key></terminal></hotkeys></config>" -r term

sdn@megasus_0.2024-12-03.22-33-36.mp4

You can get the available chords experimentally on the Info-page which is accessible by clicking on the bottom right of the vtm desktop.

Moreover, you can run this directly inside Windows Terminal (using vtm --tui option) and use Space+C chord there:

Command.Prompt.2024-12-03.23-19-45.mp4

Please note the following while running inside WT:

• Releasing both pressed Shift keys (left+right) reports only one #18223
• ENHANCED_KEY flag missing when releasing RightAlt #18120