Inserting / appending in visual mode doesn't work

[MatusGasparik]

Description

When selecting multiple lines using the vim's visual mode the inserting (with I / shift-i) or appending (with A / shift-a) doesn't work. The inserting happens only on the current line, but not the entire selected block. The appending at the end of each line doesn't even work for the current line (it simply does the "normal" a append at the cursor possition).

Reproduce

Using some multi-line dummy text:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, 
sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore 
magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam 
et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, 
no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. 

1. Navigate to any line and select multiple lines with V / shift-v and the desired movement (e.g. with j or G / shift-g )

2. Now, press I / shift-i to insert at the beginning of the visual block, type anything and hit <escape>.

What you get is this:

Expected behavior

...instead of this:

Context

• Python package version:

  jupyterlab: 3.5.0
  jupyterlab-vim: 0.14.5

• Extension version:

  jupyter labextension list

Config option `kernel_spec_manager_class` not recognized by `ListLabExtensionsApp`.
[W 2023-05-20 11:52:41.462 LabApp] Config option `kernel_spec_manager_class` not recognized by `LabApp`.
JupyterLab v3.5.0
/Users/matus/miniconda3/share/jupyter/labextensions
        jupyterlab-vimrc v0.5.2 enabled OK
        jupyterlab_pygments v0.2.2 enabled OK (python, jupyterlab_pygments)
        @axlair/jupyterlab_vim v0.14.5 enabled OK (python, jupyterlab_vim)
        @jupyter-widgets/jupyterlab-manager v5.0.7 enabled OK (python, jupyterlab_widgets)

Other labextensions (built into JupyterLab)
   app dir: /Users/matus/miniconda3/share/jupyter/lab

• Operating System and its version: macOS 12.6.2. (Apple M1 Max Chip)

• Browser and its version: Version 113.0.5672.92 (Official Build) (arm64)

Command Line Output

Paste the output from your command line running `jupyter lab` here, use `--debug` if possible.

Web Browser Output

No browser console output

[lukashergt]

1. Navigate to any line and select multiple lines with V / shift-v and the desired movement (e.g. with j or G / shift-g )

   2. Now, press I / shift-i to insert at the beginning of the visual block, type anything and hit <escape>.

This is not how column insert works in vim (neither in a terminal nor in jupyter). Instead:

1. Navigate to any line and select multiple lines with ctrl-v and the desired movement (e.g. with j or G / shift-g and l or h)
2. Now, press I / shift-i to insert at the beginning of the visual block or press A / shift-a to insert after the visual block, type anything and hit <escape>.

[MatusGasparik]

Thanks @lukashergt for your reply. I guess you are right. I just realized that it works for me in VSCode with the vim extension, but that has probably to do with the multi-line cursor functionality of the editor. I tried the same in vanilla VIM editor and indeed I need to use the column visual selection (ctrl-v) to make it work.

Another related question: is it in any way possible to use vim-commentary (https://github.com/tpope/vim-commentary) in the jupyterlab-vim extension?

[MatusGasparik]

Closing as this is a non-issue.