A DESCRIPTION OF THE REQUEST :
Add a readKeyEvent() method (or something similar) to java.io.Console. This method would return the next key typed by the user, regardless of whether it is displayable. This would be similar to how key events work in AWT, except it would be active (method call) rather than passive (listener). You'll need to buffer key events, and clear the buffer at the appropriate times. You may also want to add a method to allow manual clearing of the buffer.

JUSTIFICATION :
RFE 6351276 asks for the ability to read one character at a time. This is nice but it doesn't go far enough. Many console applications need to do custom handling of low-level key events (shift, alt, arrow keys, function keys, etc).