Shortcuts using the Meta key in Windows do not work

Issue Report Checklist

• Fix start of line shortcut
• Fix previous char shortcut
• Fix kill previous word shortcut
• Fix kill next word shortcut
• Fix end of line shortcut
• Fix next char shortcut
• Fix kill to line end shortcut
• Fix next line shortcut
• Fix previous line shortcut
• Fix rotate kill ring shortcut
• Fix kill to line start shortcut
• Fix yank shortcut
• Fix Next word shortcut (fixed in PR #7874)
• Fix Previous Word shortcut (fixed in PR #7874)

Problem Description

As mentioned in https://github.com/spyder-ide/spyder/pull/7768#issuecomment-416251033, using the Meta key is not a valid key sequence for shortcuts in Windows 10.

The event associated with the key sequence is intercepted by Windows and is never sent to Spyder. So to my knowledge, there is not much we can do about this…

Unfortunately, in Spyder, 14 shortcuts use the Meta key by default in their key sequence. This means that, 14 shortcuts are not usable by default in Spyder.

I think that we need to re-define other key sequences for these shortcuts and avoid using the Meta key at all cost.

[zkoynz]

👍 progress? To be completely honest, the only reason I want this addressed is for quick access to ‘Shortcuts Summary’ 😶

Thanks for your hard work!

[jnsebgosselin]

👍 progress? To be completely honest, the only reason I want this addressed is for quick access to ‘Shortcuts Summary’ 😶

Thanks for your hard work!

This shortcut is hardcoded in spyder.app.mainwindow.py, so we need to change that there. This can be done for Spyder4. I still need to better understand how shortcuts work in macOS before I change this though.