I've been looking into this. The problem is the FigureCanvasMac class does not implement functions such as key_press_event, like the GTK backend does. My initial assessment is that this, although would be nice to have, will take a little time. It probably shouldn't stop the release candidate, but it should make it into a bugfix release, perhaps.

It probably shouldn't stop the release candidate, but it should make it into a bugfix release, perhaps.

There is no urgency on this IMHO. It is a thing that we would love to have done, but ultimately, will only get done if somebody really needs it (and is motivated to do it!). Personally, I wouldn't be concerned if this didn't get in until 1.3.

key_press_event for FigureCanvasMac is implemented in in the C code in _macosx.m in the keyDown method. Probably it's not difficult to add modifiers to it. Any volunteers?

I started a local branch for this and never got round to finishing it. I'm happy to volunteer to do it, but I'd like to get some of my current pull requests completed before creating more unfinished pieces of work.

(Please don't let that prevent anybody else from writing a patch. I can't find my branch anyway!)

Added a patch for this in #1841

#1841 merged; closing.

Wooho thanks @cimarronm!