Feature request - undo after moving cursor should optionally just put the cursor back, without undoing

[Madd0g]

There's a feature I'm missing that I've used in other IDE's, when finishing typing, moving somewhere else (for example to select+copy some variable name), then pressing CMD+Z should bring the cursor back to the last edit location without actually undoing the typing there.

I know there's some "last cursor position" keyboard shortcut, but I believe this should be a first-class functionality of the undo, like it is in other editors (I remember this from webstorm, but I'm pretty sure the muscle memory for doing this comes from way before webstorm).

What do you think?
Thanks

• VSCode Version: 1.16
• OS Version: OSX 10.11

[alexdima]

@Madd0g would cmd+u do the trick for you? It is a "soft undo" that moves the cursor to the last cursor location... Or would you prefer to have undo entries in the undo stack that only move the cursor. That is something that would compete a bit with go back ctrl+- by default.

[Madd0g]

cmd+u doesn't do the trick and even if it did work, I strongly believe it should be built into the undo functionality, like it is with a lot of other editors. It shouldn't remember each cursor move, just if you did move the cursor (even a bunch of times), undo brings you back to where you last typed, without actually removing the typed text.

I believe it's a huge usability boost, even for one single purpose I use this for:

1. write the start of a function call document.getElementById("
2. double-click on some word you see on the screen, copy it
3. cmd+z and paste

I tried using cmd+u where I would usually use cmd+z and it did not work (it worked on second press though).

This process is hardwired into me from many years. I believe this is a more correct behavior simply because what user would want to undo something they (potentially) cannot see? Jumping back to the edit location before actually undoing, in my eyes, is better UX just for that reason.

Thanks

[duncanawerbuck]

@Madd0g would cmd+u do the trick for you? It is a "soft undo" that moves the cursor to the last cursor location... Or would you prefer to have undo entries in the undo stack that only move the cursor. That is something that would compete a bit with go back ctrl+- by default.

@Madd0g, can you (or anyone else) please clarify the difference between go back and soft undo?

[wenfangdu]

@duncanawerbuck In my experience, soft undo resets every cursor movement, go back won't if it's just a up/down or ctrl+left/right etc. it resets in the page level, like change active file, or page up/down, give them a try, you will see.
btw. soft undo is renamed to cursor undo now

[Mannibaer]

What's the current state of the requested feature? I also agree with @Madd0g, this feature would highly increase the UX of every developer!

[PepperAndSalt]

I want this feature so badly!

[kyle-mallah]

The lack of this feature makes undo/redo uninformative and error prone.

When 'ctrl-z' causes the page to scroll and undo at the same time, it's impossible to see what was undone without redoing and undoing it. I see myself constantly having to undo-redo-undo so that I can see what was actually changed on the first undo. This is also error prone as if you mistype one of the shortcuts, you wipe your undo/redo history and you're left wondering what you may (or may not) have changed

[mathieuprog]

It's a hard switch from IntelliJ to VS Code without this feature honestly. Devs are constantly scrolling through files. I feel more confident to undo when at first I get back to the cursor position where something can be undone, and only the second action will undo. I find myself constantly undo-ing/redo-ing with VS Code.

[Leo7654]

+1

[holazz]

Just switched from WebStorm to VS Code, I desperately want this feature!