Improving the default SCM user experience

[miguelsolorio]

Problem

This is a continuation of #110882 (comment). One of the areas of friction that I see in our default SCM experience is how the actions and flows of staging => committing > pushing happen in different areas of the UI (primarily pushing). Additionally, it's not always immediately clear why the "commit" action is above the input when in most forms (even in the GHPR extension) has them below, not to mention that the ✅ takes some time to get used to.

Proposal

What if instead of making the sync actions live in the status bar we updated the default view to contain these actions and to keep with the hierarchy of "bottom" to "top" view. This means some actions would need to be re-arranged. This proposal aims to:

• Moves the commit action to a primary action below the input
• Adds the sync actions above the commit input box (and spaced between to allow for longer branch names and a consistent hit target)
• Also adds the branch next to sync to be conveniently located never the rest of the scm actions
• Allow for this view to be toggle off via a setting (to accommodate those who prefer less UI)

CleanShot.2021-10-27.at.15.38.15.mp4

[bpasero]

Please do not forget users that use multiple repositories. I for example have the following setup that I really like:

[miguelsolorio]

@bpasero I don't think that view would change much besides changing the commit action placement (which would reduce the number of icons shown):

[bpasero]

I personally do not need to see a blue "Commit to main" button all the time. Power users that know how this works would probably agree.

Slightly related, we show no "OK" button in quick open to accept the action either:

[miguelsolorio]

I personally do not need to see a blue "Commit to main" button all the time. Power users that know how this works would probably agree.

I agree and that’s why I think this should have a setting behind it to toggle it off. This is aimed for the newer user or those who prefer a bit more GUI.

[gjsjohnmurray]

Would discoverability of the purpose of the checkmark button improve if it was disabled while the commit message field is empty, then gets enabled as soon as you start entering your message? Or if that isn't possible, maybe mention it in the prompt text? Though I see two snags with doing this:

1. On the button it is a codicon but IIRC we can't use codicons in prompts.
2. Making the prompt longer risks pushing the branch name out of view if the side bar isn't wide enough.

[gjsjohnmurray]

Also, I am not clear what purpose the checkmark buttons serve on the SOURCE CONTROL REPOSITORIES rows in @bpasero's screenshot.

[miguelsolorio]

@gjsjohnmurray that's a good point that we can likely update the commit button for that view