Keyboard shortcut for R assignment operator (<-) in VSCode in editor and terminal

Question

How would I add a keyboard shortcut for the basic assignment operator (<-) that works both in the editor AND the terminal?

Getting it to work in the editor is straightforward (content goes into keybindings.json):

{
  "key": "alt+-",
  "command": "type",
  "when": "editorLangId == r && editorTextFocus || editorLangId == rmd && editorTextFocus",
  // if you want using quarto, try this
  // "when": "editorLangId =~ /r|rmd|qmd/ && editorTextFocus",
  "args": {"text": " <- "}
}

But I'm struggling with understanding what the when clause would need to look like for the terminal.

Things I tried based on the official doc on when clauses:

• using terminalFocus

{
    "key": "alt+-",
    "command": "type",
    // "when": "editorLangId == r && editorTextFocus || editorLangId == rmd && editorTextFocus || terminalFocus",
    "args": {"text": " <- "}
}

• additional explicit language ID based on official doc

{
    "key": "alt+-",
    "command": "type",
    // "when": "editorLangId == r && editorTextFocus || editorLangId == rmd && editorTextFocus || editorLangId == shellscript && terminalFocus",
    "args": {"text": " <- "}
}

Answer 1

You can't use the type command to write to the terminal. Try this instead:

{
  "key": "alt+-",  // or whatever keybinding you want
  "command": "workbench.action.terminal.sendSequence",
  "args": {
      "text": " <- "
  },
  "when": "terminalFocus && !terminalTextSelected"
}

See send text to terminal docs