Ensure that scm.focus command works in all cases

[eamodio]

Related to #119904

[ArturoDent]

FYI, in the Insiders Build with this keybinding:

{
  "key": "alt+e",
  "command": "workbench.scm.focus"
}

focus does indeed go to the commit message input box. Unless say a file in the scm view previously had focus - as in click a file to open its scm diff editor. Then the above keybinding goes back to that file and not the message box.

I assume this is expected behaviour?

---

Version: 1.61.0-insider (user setup)
Commit: df115e7
Date: 2021-09-08T17:51:26.439Z
Electron: 13.1.8
Chrome: 91.0.4472.164
Node.js: 14.16.0
V8: 9.1.269.39-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.22000

[yellowtailfan]

The way it used to work (A): I could press Ctrl-Alt-G at any time, and VS Code would always focus the commit message box, and I could immediately start typing a commit message and then Ctrl-Enter to commit.

Since about 3 months ago, VS Code has a different behaviour (B): when I press Ctrl-Alt-G, then sometimes VS Code focuses the commit message and sometimes it focuses one of the changed files in the Git pane. If it focuses on a changed file, then it's not clear how to use the keyboard to move the focus to the commit message.

Having a keyboard shortcut that always goes directly to the commit message is very useful, so I much prefer (A) than (B).

But at least thanks to @ArturoDent I can understand why it sometimes does what I want and sometimes not.

[ArturoDent]

@yellowtailfan It appears that from a focused file in the scm view you can Home and then Enter to focus the commit message box.

I suppose you could make a macro with workbench.scm.focus and then list.focusFirst and then list.select that would always focus the message box whether a file was previously focused or not:

{
  "key": "alt+z",
  "command": "extension.multiCommand.execute",  // using the multi-command macro extension
  "args": {
    "sequence": [
      "workbench.scm.focus",
      "list.focusFirst",
      "list.select"
    ]
  },
  "when": "editorTextFocus"
},

This actually works quite nicely.

[yellowtailfan]

Wow thank you for creating a macro, that looks quite handy.

I was also inspired to experiment a bit before I saw your reply, and I found that pressing Home and then Tab also works. Plus using Tab and the arrow keys I can move between the commit message and the changed files list, and press Enter on a changed file to see the diff.

[starball5]

Also related: #44602.

I wrote up an improved version of ArturoDent's solution, which can be found here (and here. two different (different constraint levels) but very similar questions)