Overwriting shortcuts via the GUI is not working on Mac

[kolibril13]

just tried pip install -U --pre jupyterlab on a Mac, and overwriting shortcuts via the GUI is not working:

Screen.Recording.2024-04-18.at.13.02.31.mov

[krassowski]

@kolibril13 I cannot reproduce this in 4.2.0b1 but I am not on a Mac. I would be slightly surprised if this was OS-specific - did you try on a different OS already? Is there anything in the browser dev console? Can you try with a different shortcut and a different keybinding?

[kolibril13]

interesting! I did
python3.12 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -U --pre jupyterlab
jupyter lab

on MacOS + Safari
The console does not show anything, but the magnification glass looks a bit bigger:

Screen.Recording.2024-04-18.at.15.56.59.mov

I don't have another OS, but I've tried once in Firefox, everything is fine there, shortcut-reassigning works!

Overwrite in Google Chrome works as well, so I guess this is a Safari-Only issue.

[krassowski]

Also works well on GNOME Web 45 (Epiphany, uses same webkit engine as Safari). What version of Safari do you use? The magnifying glass icon is concerning, again works well on Epiphany

[kolibril13]

Safari Version 17.4.1 (19618.1.15.11.14)

[kolibril13]

and another observation: on firefox, changing the second shortcut does not work:
it changes the first shortcut instead

Screen.Recording.2024-04-20.at.13.30.29.mov

[kolibril13]

same behaviour on google chrome.
And another observation:
the new assigned shortcut for "Toggle block comment" does also not work in Google Chrome and in Firefox (have not tried other browsers)

triggering has no effect on:

I also tried another custom shortcut binding: Insert cell above, and that one did work.

[krassowski]

Thanks for extra testing @kolibril13!

changing the second shortcut does not work: it changes the first shortcut instead

I can reproduce this, it is a bug. I think it deserves its own issue as it is not Mac specific.

the new assigned shortcut for "Toggle block comment" does also not work

It does not have any effect in Python because CodeMirror Python mode does not define block comment syntax for Python. Technically it is right - Python does not have block comments, although multi-line strings are de facto used for this purpose. This is documented here:

jupyterlab/packages/codemirror-extension/src/commands.ts

Lines 80 to 83 in 2dd8f4e

	label: trans.__('Toggle Block Comment'),
	caption: trans.__(
	'Toggles block commends in languages which support it (e.g. C, JavaScript)'
	),

and here:

jupyterlab/CHANGELOG.md

Line 59 in 2dd8f4e

- the shortcuts for toggling line comments (by default <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>/</kbd>) and block comments (by default <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>A</kbd>) can be customized in the Shortcuts Editor, enabling users of non-US keyboards to adjust the keybinding to one optimal on their keyboard layout. Please note that the block comment only works in languages which have a dedicated block comment syntax defined in the CodeMirror language data (e.g. C, JavaScript, but not Python). The line comment shortcut can be also used to comment out multiple lines.

Please note that the block comment only works in languages which have a dedicated block comment syntax defined in the CodeMirror language data (e.g. C, JavaScript, but not Python). The line comment shortcut can be also used to comment out multiple lines.

So there are two ways forward:

• work on adding the caption in the UI to expose this info more because users don't read past changelogs.
• propose adding multi-line comments as block syntax for Python upstream in CodeMirror (if you feel like this is the way forward please open an issue on https://github.com/codemirror/dev/issues and link it back here)

[kolibril13]

I can reproduce this, it is a bug. I think it deserves its own issue as it is not Mac specific.

Good to know, I've opened #16211 for this.

So there are two ways forward:

• work on adding the caption in the UI to expose this info more because users don't read past changelogs.
• propose adding multi-line comments as block syntax for Python upstream in CodeMirror (if you feel like this is the way forward please open an issue on https://github.com/codemirror/dev/issues and link it back here)

I will forward this report, as this feature would benefit a lot of people with non US keyboard layouts! :)

[krassowski]

@kolibril13 when reporting issues upstream it is better to include all details and follow the issue template carefully. The upstream maintainers are kind to help us in their time and we should respect it by making it as easy for them as possible :)

[kolibril13]

Noted. Thanks for adding these details! :)

[krassowski]

Thank you for testing and help with the issues!

[kolibril13]

Thanks! :) I also really appreciate your dedication to make Jupyter better and more accessible with every release!

[JasonWeill]

I can also reproduce the bad behavior noted in Firefox on macOS. Thank you for your contribution!

[krassowski]

@JasonWeill can you reproduce it with #16214?