w3c / w3c/csswg-drafts

[mediaqueries-5] Detect physical keyboard (keyboard capable of shortcuts?)

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mediaqueries-5
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Description

From stackoverflow: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/36976117/css-media-query-for-whether-a-physical-keyboard-is-attached

Use case: I want show keyboard shortcut labels in my menu / tooltips but only when the user has a physical keyboard.

Rationale (taken directly from the above SO issue):

  • nobody would use a soft-keyboard this way even if they could
  • the visual display of the keyboard shortcut takes up valuable real-estate
  • it's perhaps confusing, or at least inelegant, to display keyboard shortcuts in a keyboardless context

Apparently some people are doing horrible hacks like using @media (hover: hover) and (pointer: fine) { ... } to detect if there is a mouse/trackpad and assuming that means there is a keyboard too.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reading the CSSWG issue discussion and the linked Stack Overflow question, including the proposed hover and pointer workaround. Determine whether a physical-keyboard media query is sufficiently specified and what observable behavior would define completion; the issue does not name implementation files or tests.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
css
Domain
frontend, web-dev
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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