Allow extension commands to define the behaviour when Alt modifier is pressed

[alefragnani]

When you declare a command for an extension, it appears in Command Palette and you can select/use it with Return Key/Mouse Click. But there are some core commands that has special behavior when you combine with Ctrl, like Open on the Side.

I would like to have the ability to declare a command and have the normal and alternative behaviors, just like that.

Thanks in advance

[sandy081]

You cannot achieve that with a single command. A command will always have a single behavior and no alternate behavior. You always have to define different commands for different behaviors and can bind different key bindings to them.

[alefragnani]

Hi @sandy081 , I guess I messed up with the issue description 😢 . The intention was not for commands, but for QuickPick . I just noted my mess when I was starting to answer you to better explain my needs, sorry. This is my real scenario:

My Project Manager extension has two commands: List Projects to Open and List Projects to Open in New Window. Both uses a QuickPick to display a list of folders. The user selects one and I open VSCode with that folder. The only difference is that the second command opens a new VSCode instance instead of replacing the current one.

The original idea of this issue was to be able to select items (and detect the modifier) with Ctrl + Return. Doing so, I could _remove the List Projects to Open in New Window command from my extension. As you can see, there was nothing to do with Ctrl modifier for commands, my bad 😢

Sorry for the misunderstanding.

[sandy081]

If I understand correctly, your requirement was to know how a user selected an entry in quick pick say

• source (mouse, key board)
• alt modifiers

[alefragnani]

Yes, exactly 👍

I have looked at VSCode source code sometime ago, and found where this was handled. If I remember correctly, only the Ctrl modifier being handled (not Shift nor Alt), but this may have changed since then.

Thanks in advance

[alexrussell]

Looks like the new alternativeAcceptSelectedQuickOpenItem signals that this is now possible, though it's not obvious from the release notes whether extension authors can use this QuickPick select+modifier functionality, or only the open/symbols pickers...

[TylerLeonhardt]

Although I agree that this is a valid request, I wonder if instead you'd prefer to use the new QuickPickItemButtons as it is more obvious what the alternative actions for a particular item are.

Sometimes I accidentally trigger the ctrl+enter behavior in the quick pick and worry that it could be confusing to a lot of users if they don't know that ctrl causes an alternate behavior.

[alefragnani]

In fact, I would like to have both 😬, but yes, the new QuickPickItemButtons API is a great alternative and I'm definitely embracing, when available.

The reason to prefer the modifier approach is because users complains about the extension not following VS Code behavior. Not only my Project Manager extension would use, but also both Bookmarks extensions.

But I understand your point. The issue is quite old and has only a few upvotes/interactions. If you don't see this happening in the near future, nor other devs/teams requesting such API, feel free to close the issue in favor of the QuickPickItemButtons API. I'm ok with that 👍 .

Thank you

[jppellet]

I agree this would be useful. I would enjoy being able to tell if e.g. Alt or Ctrl is pressed when for instance an action button atop the editor area that I contribute is pressed, and act then accordingly.