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Feature request: enable editing_mode = ‘vi’ for a ZMQTerminalIPythonApp console

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Assessment

Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Newbie friendliness
38/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Stale
Tech stack
jupyter, python
Domain
backend, cli

Research direction

Reproduce the difference between a vanilla IPython console and a jupyter console connected to an existing kernel, then trace ZMQTerminalIPythonApp and ZMQInteractiveShell. Compare how the vanilla shell exposes editing_mode and determine what is needed for the connected console to support both emacs and vi modes.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

When starting a vanilla kernel (e.g. invoking ‘ipython’) it is possible to change the editing mode between ‘emacs’ or ‘vi’. There are other ways of doing it but a simple one is to:

ipython
Python 3.10.12 | packaged by conda-forge | (main, Jun 23 2023, 22:40:32) [GCC 12.3.0]
Type 'copyright', 'credits' or 'license' for more information
IPython 8.16.0 -- An enhanced Interactive Python. Type '?' for help.

In [1]: ip = get_ipython()

In [2]: ip.editing_mode
Out[2]: 'emacs'

In [3]: ip.editing_mode = 'vi'

[ins] In [4]:

But when connecting to a jupyter-lab-made kernel this is not possible:

# after starting a kernel in jupyer lab and getting its info using %connect_info
jupyter console --existing kernel-00463bd1-4faf-4491-a903-a7179a6d4ceb.json
[ZMQTerminalIPythonApp] WARNING | Config option `kernel_spec_manager_class` not recognized by `ZMQTerminalIPythonApp`.  Did you mean `kernel_manager_class`?
Jupyter console 6.6.3

Python 3.10.12 | packaged by conda-forge | (main, Jun 23 2023, 22:40:32) [GCC 12.3.0]
Type 'copyright', 'credits' or 'license' for more information
IPython 8.16.0 -- An enhanced Interactive Python. Type '?' for help.

In [1]: ip = get_ipython()

In [6]: ip.editing_mode
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
AttributeError                            Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[6], line 1
----> 1 ip.editing_mode

AttributeError: 'ZMQInteractiveShell' object has no attribute 'editing_mode'

In [7]:
Dominant language
Python
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Forks
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Avg merge
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Merged PRs (30d)
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