I've searched a good deal, and can't seem to find a satisfactory solution. I hope someone can help.

While I am using jQuery, I am also writing many thousands of lines of JavaScript. So a "pure" JavaScript solution is just fine.

I'm trying to determine if the control key is physically held down on a mouseup event. That's it; there are no other preconditions. Does anyone know how to do this reliably, cross-browser?

I've tried storing this in a state variable by noting when the key is pressed and released:

// BEGIN store control key status in hash_state

$().bind('keydown','ctrl',function( arg_obj_e ){

  hash_state.sw_ctrldn = true;

  console.debug( hash_state.sw_ctrldn );

});

$().bind('keyup','ctrl',function( arg_obj_e ){

  hash_state.sw_ctrldn = false;

  console.debug( hash_state.sw_ctrldn );

});

// END store control key status in hash_state

However, this really doesn't work. If you test this using Firebug and watch the console, you will see that auto-repeat seems to happen, and the value toggles.

I inspected the mouseup event to see if there is anything useful there, but to no avail:

var debugEvent = function( arg_obj_e ){

  var str = '';

  for ( var attr in arg_obj_e ){

    str += attr + ': ' + arg_obj_e[attr] + 'n';

  }

  console.debug(str);

}

Any help would be appreciated.