Why both LMB drag and B selection modes that differ in ctrl/shift and functionality?

[PaulMelis]

@billrey

Afaik there’s no great reason why dragging LMB vs the B key works differently with modifier keys.

Main difference is that the B key box select is a modal operator which you first launch, and then you can use modifiers, whereas when you drag, it happens the other way around: You hold a modifier key, then drag.

Right, and that difference in activating the selection method might matter for certain editors I guess.

@billrey

Should I stick to only explaining LMB drag and not mention Bkey at all?

Probably, if you are teaching new users, though annoyingly the only way to box select in the Outliner is still by using the B key. This will most likely be addressed in 2.81 though, with the forthcoming Outliner changes.

Hmmm, the outliner having its own selection of tree items which is independent of the scene selection is also a bit of a headache visually, let alone how to make the selection. And it seems that with the latest revision (2.80.68) things got tweaked again and you can no longer tell the selection state of the active object:

While in 2.80.60 (note, cubes have different names wrt order):

I do like the orange/yellow coloring of the names, though, much easier to link to the selection state. Ah well, at some point it hopefully becomes perfect