ctrl/cmd + A should select all in lists / trees

[adamroyjones]

I am using vscode 1.29.1 on a mid-2014 MacBook Pro running macOS 10.13.6.

When the file explorer is focussed:

1. cmd+a does not select all files; and
2. shift+arrows (to expand a selection) does not behave as it would in Finder.

(Bonus feature request: it'd be really cool if, like in JetBrains' IDEs, typing when the file explorer is focussed would filter the files.)

P.S. Keep up the amazing work—vscode is so good!

[isidorn]

cmd + a intentionally does not select all, since users expect it to select all in the editor.
@bpasero wasn't that the reason for cmd+a, however I can not get it to select all now when focus is in the explorer

@Docbiz shift + arrows expands the selection for me. Can you provide more details as to what does not behave as expected here? And can you reproduce that behavior with latest vscode insiders https://code.visualstudio.com/insiders/

The bonus feature request is a duplicte - you can find it and upvote it if you want

[bpasero]

@isidorn I think now that we have multi-select in the explorer we could allow to select all in lists and trees with Cmd/Ctrl+A.

[isidorn]

Yeah, makes sense. Renaming and assigning to next milestone once we have moved to the new tree.
fyi @joaomoreno

[adamroyjones]

@isidorn Thanks for getting back to me!

I've installed the Insiders edition (456e8e64beb2dceac66743959f6802b66e18e300) and have recorded the following video inside it:

To explain what's going on here: I select 3.txt and start by expanding and contracting my selection by holding down shift. I then start moving the start position for a new selection by using the arrows without holding shift down and create new selections (again, with shift+arrows) that overlap the original ones. It behaves quite unlike selections would in Finder; I don't know if this is intended. (It also might be nice if, when a selection has been created in the file explorer, the return key opened the files rather than started to rename the first file in the selection.)

The bonus feature request is a duplicte - you can find it and upvote it if you want

I would if I could find it! But so long as you know of the idea, then that's fine by me.

Let me know if you need any more information!

[isidorn]

@Docbiz I see the same with selection, so I would forward this to @joaomoreno as he owns the list / tree selection

@joaomoreno regarding cmd+A not working in the new explorer. The issue here is that this command does not work with the tree. I think it should, so I tried changing it, however I am missing some api. More precisly I can not nicely tell the tree to select all of its elements.
The only way to do it is to traverse all elements via getNode collect them in an array and pass them to setSelection. There should be an easier way for this imho.

[usernamehw]

Would it be possible to use it by folder scopes?
Pressing Cmd+A would select all in folder, next press in the outer ...

Initial state	After Cmd+A

[joaomoreno]

@usernamehw I really like that! Pushed 20b2799

[isidorn]

Fancy!