what do the parameter values in AppleSymbolicHotKeys plist dict represent?

Question

tl;dr

what does the first parameters value in com.apple.symbolichotkeys:AppleSymbolicHotKeys represent?

details...

the Apple

Answer 1

It is the ascii code of the letter on the key, or -1 (65535) if there is no ascii code. Note that letters are lowercase, so D is 100 (lowercase d).

Sometimes a key that would normally have an ascii code uses 65535 instead. This appears to happen when the control key modifier is used, for example with hot keys for specific spaces.

There is a nice list of keys and values from 2011 here, along with some other good details:

http://hintsforums.macworld.com/showthread.php?t=114785

Answer 2

The numerical values in nrser's answer make more sense when viewed in hexadecimal form:

0x000000 => "No modifier",
0x020000 => "Shift",
0x040000 => "Control",
0x080000 => "Option",
0x100000 => "Command",

The others are simply bit-wise-ORs of the above values, for example:

0x060000 => "Shift + Control",
0x180000 => "Command + Option",