> 2. You can't have hotkeys that are just modifier keys because the modifier keys only change the byte sent when pressing another key. So could couldn't have a hotkey "Shift" but you can have a hotkey "Shift-n".
Later model physical DEC terminals had a mode called PCTERM (with escape sequences to enter/exit it) in which the terminal would send PC keyboard scan codes for key presses. However, very few terminal emulators implement that.
The Telnet server and client in Windows NT implements a somewhat similar feature, the VTNT terminal type, in which keyboard scan codes and mouse movements are transmitted in a binary format which is based on the Windows console API. (Nowadays Telnet is mostly deprecated in favour of SSH; there is no reason why SSH clients and servers could not implement VTNT, but I haven't seen any do it.)
The technology already exists to solve this problem, and has for years. It is just that nobody appears to care about it enough for that technology to become widely adopted.
Later model physical DEC terminals had a mode called PCTERM (with escape sequences to enter/exit it) in which the terminal would send PC keyboard scan codes for key presses. However, very few terminal emulators implement that.
The Telnet server and client in Windows NT implements a somewhat similar feature, the VTNT terminal type, in which keyboard scan codes and mouse movements are transmitted in a binary format which is based on the Windows console API. (Nowadays Telnet is mostly deprecated in favour of SSH; there is no reason why SSH clients and servers could not implement VTNT, but I haven't seen any do it.)
The technology already exists to solve this problem, and has for years. It is just that nobody appears to care about it enough for that technology to become widely adopted.