Option to start clicked cells in insert mode

[tlkaufmann]

I love this extension, thanks a ton!

When clicking in any given cell it places the cursor in Vim mode. Is there an option to change this default to insert mode?

Thanks in advance

[SqrtRyan]

I second this! After reading the index.ts, it looks like MAYBE this can be done by commenting out line 64? I'm not sure, I can't get it to run in jupyter lab because I don't know how to compile and load it lol.

Honestly, this makes copying and pasting from cells into sublime a real pain in the butt because I'm used to just clicking a cell, doing control+a, then control+c. But control+a doesn't work unless you're in insert mode, so I press: control a, control c, realize it didn't work, press i, press control+a, press control+c, and then I've copied a cell.

Line 64:

[lukashergt]

Hi both,

from a vim user perspective wishing for the default to be insert mode seems a bit odd to me. Why do you want to use the vim extension in the first place, then? But I obviously don't mean to oppose an option to manually change the default behaviour, as long as it is not changed generally for everybody.

Regarding specifically your copy-paste example, @SqrtRyan, since ctrl+a is not a vim keybinding, I feel like this is not a good motivation for changing the default behaviour of a vim extension. The vim way of "select all" is ggVG. After that you can copy/yank with y if you're staying within jupyter lab or use ctrl+c in your case to paste to sublime.

[SqrtRyan]

First of all, thank you for responding so quickly! :)

I really love using this VIM plugin for when I need to do tons of text editing in a single cell. That's why I love using this plugin...but I'm not a vim purist. I really only need to use the NAV mode when I'm doing heavy editing on a single cell, which for me is less than a quarter of the time I click a cell (most of the time, when I use the mouse, it's because I'm copying and pasting).

I know you can do ggVG, but not only is that more typing, but when I switch between that and the jupyter console (which doesn't have vim keybindings) it's confusing and it trips me up because I'm so used to control+a etc. It's really annoying to need so many keystrokes when I need to copy, say, 10 cells to sublime text. I don't use this plugin because I love vim keybindings...I use it because it saves me time lol. When the vim keybindings get more verbose than the originals (control+a vs ggVg, or (click) i control-v vs just (click)control-v), it makes me loose time.

(On the same note of verbosity, I also wish there was a way to exit the cell's edit mode with something other than :wq, perhaps hitting escape twice in NAV mode, as (at least on my computer) :wq often lags a little, taking up to half a second on my computer sometimes - just waiting for the : prompt to show up so I can type wq(enter)). I wanted to ask if it would be possible to add an option such that when you hit 'escape' in NAV mode, it exits the cell in the same way :wq(enter) does? (I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask though, so I could make a separate issue for this if you'd like)

Thank you, Ryan

[SqrtRyan]

Oh, on a sidenote - the author of Vintageous (the vim plugin for sublime) originally had a similar argument to making nav mode the default when switching tabs in Sublime, but eventually added an option earlier this year to make insert mode the default. I changed it right away because I really like starting in insert mode, and having VIM as an option I opt for rather than the default :)

[SqrtRyan]

Oh, another sidenote - I think one possibility that would make everybody happy might be to retain whatever mode you had before you clicked off the cell, and use that. For example, if I was in NAV mode before clicking out of the cell, the next time I click into a cell it should still be in NAV mode. Likewise, if I was in INSERT mode before clikcing out of a cell, the next cell I click into would also be in INSERT mode.

I believe this is the way Google Colab works when you set their keybindings to VIM mode, so it's not without precedent