Key codes

Every key and mouse button the engine knows has a name on natiny.input, so nothing has to be written as a bare number:

if natiny.input.get_key_down(natiny.input.KEY_W) then
    y = y - speed * dt
end

if natiny.input.get_mouse_button_pressed(natiny.input.MOUSE_BUTTON_LEFT) then
    fire()
end

The names are what get_key_down, get_key_pressed, get_key_released and the get_mouse_button_down functions take. Lifting them into locals once, outside the loop, keeps the frame's table lookups down:

local KEY_W, KEY_S = natiny.input.KEY_W, natiny.input.KEY_S
local KEY_A, KEY_D = natiny.input.KEY_A, natiny.input.KEY_D

A key's value is a plain number, the same number on every platform, and the C API spells the same constant NATINY_INPUT_KEY_W. Values run to 348, well inside the 512 the engine tracks; anything outside that range simply reads as not pressed rather than an error.

Printable keys - the value is the character's ASCII code

Editing and navigation

Locks and system keys

Function keys

Keypad

Modifiers

Mouse buttons

Notes

• The printable keys carry their own ASCII code, which is why KEY_A is 65 and not 0. That is a physical key on a US layout, not the character it types - for text, read get_char_at instead, which gives what the keyboard's own layout produced.
• The values follow GLFW, which is what the desktop backends report. On the web the browser's keyCode is translated to the same numbers, so a name means the same key everywhere.
• Four constants never arrive from a browser, which has no keyCode of its own for them: KEY_KP_EQUAL, KEY_F25, KEY_WORLD_1 and KEY_WORLD_2.
• A browser also reports one code for each modifier pair, so on the web the left-hand name stands for both: KEY_LEFT_SHIFT is true for either Shift, and KEY_RIGHT_SHIFT never fires. KEY_KP_ENTER arrives as KEY_ENTER for the same reason.
• KEY_PRINT_SCREEN reaches a desktop window on release only, which is what the operating system passes on.

See also

• get_key_down - is the key held this frame
• get_key_pressed - was it pressed this frame
• get_key_released - was it released this frame
• get_char_at - the characters typed this frame, layout and all