Differentiate between ^J and <Enter> in curses

Question

I've noticed some curses applications (for instance vim) treat ^J and <Enter> as the same keypress

I've also noticed that others treat them as separate keys (for instance nano which uses ^J for "Justify")

In my particular case, I'm using curses through python, however both presses appear to give the same value

Here's a small demo application:

import curses


def c_main(stdscr):
    wch = ''
    while wch != 'q':
        stdscr.addstr(0, 0, 'Press a key, q to quit: ')
        wch = stdscr.get_wch()
        key = wch if isinstance(wch, int) else ord(wch)
        keyname = curses.keyname(key)
        stdscr.insstr(1, 0, f'> got {wch!r} {key!r} {keyname!r}{" " * 80}')


def main():
    curses.wrapper(c_main)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    exit(main())

For both ^J (control + J) and <enter> (enter key) I get the following:

Press a key, q to quit: 
> got '\n' 10 b'^J'

How can I differentiate these two?

Answer 1

Setting curses.nonl() disables translation of the <enter> key to '\n'

For example:

import curses


def c_main(stdscr):
    curses.nonl()
    wch = ''
    i = 1
    while wch != 'q':
        stdscr.addstr(0, 0, 'Press a key, q to quit: ')
        stdscr.keypad(False)
        wch = stdscr.get_wch()
        key = wch if isinstance(wch, int) else ord(wch)
        keyname = curses.keyname(key)
        stdscr.insstr(i, 0, f'> got {wch!r} {key!r} {keyname!r}{" " * 80}')
        i += 1


def main():
    curses.wrapper(c_main)

And then issuing ^J followed by <enter>:

Press a key, q to quit: 
> got '\n' 10 b'^J'
> got '\r' 13 b'^M'