I actually ended up reverting this commit.

I cannot accept it because the column selection keybindings work together:

{ "key": "ctrl+shift+alt+down",   "command": "cursorColumnSelectDown",
                                     "when": "textInputFocus" },
{ "key": "ctrl+shift+alt+left",   "command": "cursorColumnSelectLeft",
                                     "when": "textInputFocus" },
{ "key": "ctrl+shift+alt+pagedown", "command": "cursorColumnSelectPageDown",
                                     "when": "textInputFocus" },
{ "key": "ctrl+shift+alt+pageup", "command": "cursorColumnSelectPageUp",
                                     "when": "textInputFocus" },
{ "key": "ctrl+shift+alt+right",  "command": "cursorColumnSelectRight",
                                     "when": "textInputFocus" },
{ "key": "ctrl+shift+alt+up",     "command": "cursorColumnSelectUp",
                                     "when": "textInputFocus" },

Changing just two of them only creates confusion. And we cannot change all of them because ctrl+shift+left and ctrl+shift+right are used for word selection.

What's the difference between cursorColumnSelectLeft and a simple Shift+Left?

The latter wraps (goes up) at line starts.

Ah I see, quite a minor detail IMHO. Also it doesn't seem to work with multiple cursors for me or is this a bug? If not, I don't see the use-case for the command at all.

I'm using cursorColumnSelectUp/Down to quickly get multiple cursors in a straight line. As I can't even use cursorColumnSelectLeft after that in a meaningful way and they do different things (adding a new cusor vs. expanding the selection), I don't see how they are related (beside the name).

Also note that cursorColumnSelectLeft/Right doesn't have any keybindings assigned by default on Linux and no one seems to mind (no issue about it).

@jhasse I am referring to Windows. On Windows, we bind the following:

{ "key": "ctrl+shift+alt+down",     "command": "cursorColumnSelectDown" },
{ "key": "ctrl+shift+alt+left",     "command": "cursorColumnSelectLeft" },
{ "key": "ctrl+shift+alt+pagedown", "command": "cursorColumnSelectPageDown" },
{ "key": "ctrl+shift+alt+pageup",   "command": "cursorColumnSelectPageUp" },
{ "key": "ctrl+shift+alt+right",    "command": "cursorColumnSelectRight" },
{ "key": "ctrl+shift+alt+up",       "command": "cursorColumnSelectUp" },

They are special commands that implement a special kind of selection which some other editors call box selection. They store hidden state (e.g. the right variant can go beyond the max column on a line). Rebinding two of the commands makes no sense, as they are useful together.

If all you are doing is adding cursors in a straight line, then, feel free to use ctrl+alt+up and ctrl+alt+down which do that. These commands (column selection) are different, and the differences are indeed subtle, but important.