4.0.0 lacks selectable key map

[drewlio]

Problem

4.0.0 appears to lack the selectable key map feature to allow a user to choose vim/emacs/sublime mode for cell editing. However, in the Jupyterlab documentation on the interface for version latest it does appear as a feature.

Proposed Solution

I understand there has a been a change to codemirror and that codemirror supports vim keymaps. Can we get this feature on the roadmap for Jupyterlab? Or alternatively, is there a way for users to add this?

Thank you so much.

Additional context

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[krassowski]

Thank you for highlighting this.

and that codemirror supports vim keymaps.

This links to CodeMirror 5 documentation. JupyterLab 4 uses CodeMirror 6, which does not ship alternative keymaps, but extensions can still define custom keymaps. Here are three CodeMirror 6 extensions from replit defining keymaps which we could use:

• https://github.com/replit/codemirror-vim
• https://github.com/replit/codemirror-emacs
• https://github.com/replit/codemirror-vscode-keymap

I believe that in CodeMirror 6 migration follow-up the keymap setting was removed but documentation was not updated. Personally I would be in favour of reinstating keymaps using replit extensions and would be happy to help with this.

[firai]

Personally I would be in favour of reinstating keymaps using replit extensions and would be happy to help with this.

By the way, it would be good to know whether the JL team prefers to or will likely add keymaps back to JL 4 as a core feature. I think the jupyterlab-vim team, i.e., @ianhi, was assuming that the plugin would have to inject the replit vim keymap (see jupyterlab-contrib/jupyterlab-vim#68 (comment)), which makes updating the extension for JL 4 a little bit more daunting.

[krassowski]

We discussed this on the team meeting and there were no voices against including the key maps in core. Especially lack of codemirror-vim keymap seems to be a regression so this is open for PRs.

[ianhi]

So the prior behavior i.e. jlab3 was core had selectable keymaps for the file editor, but not for notebooks. jupyterlab-vim brought it to the notebook. Was the proposal in the meeting for just the file editor, or for both notebook and fileeditor?

[krassowski]

I did mention that it was specific to file editor. In JL 4 it is currently difficult to add document-type (notebook vs file editor)-specific extension (I am hitting this with lsp now) but in principle it is possible. Would you see it as beneficial to have it for both file editor and notebook?

[zaneselvans]

I would definitely find it useful to have alternative (vi) keybindings available in the notebooks. I don't use the file editor, but have gotten very used to having the vi keybindings available in as many text editing contexts as possible (VS Code, Jupyter, and vim itself of course). Without the alternative keybindings I'll probably give working with notebooks in VS Code a try, but I would prefer to continue using the open source interface.

[ianhi]

Would you see it as beneficial to have it for both file editor and notebook?

The notebook is really the critical part from my perspective. The fileeditor at the same time would be a nice bonus. Historically jlab core provided vim only in the fileeditor, which ended up being a source of some user confusion.

[krassowski]

jupyterlab-vim already supports JupyterLab 4.0: https://github.com/jupyterlab-contrib/jupyterlab-vim/releases/tag/v4.0.3