Seems like it's outside jQuery:

http://jsfiddle.net/dmethvin/29gJ4/4/

Perhaps we just want to change the docs. It appears this behavior varies not only by browser but possibly by platform:

http://unixpapa.com/js/key.html

You can also check http://quirksmode.org/dom/events/keys.html or just google for any code/plugin (doesn't need to be jQuery related) that handles or tries to handle keyboard events cross-browser.

Afaik the keydown/-press/-up events aren't covered by a specification. Thus the actual behavior differs between browsers, same browser but different versions, platforms, ...

So probably this was just an oversight when the docs where written (e.g. maybe some quick tests where only done in FF or similar)

So this isn't really fixable with a reasonable amout of code. But if you are willing to try and normalize keyevent behavior crossbrowser and provide it as a patch (pull request on github) that could be considered for inclusion in a future jQuery version.

I've updated the keypress docs to highlight the lack of consistent cross-browser support for this (something along the lines of what jitter said above).