Explore notebook keymap support

[rebornix]

Notebook actions we ship in the core have VS Code inspired keybindings bound to them, with which existing users can manipulate the notebook content with the keyboard shortcuts they are already with in the text editors.

However Jupyter users may prefer the Vim-like keybindings from traditional Jupyter web apps. Those keybindings may have conflicts with the builtin ones. To avoid conflicts, we can turn them into keymaps (builtin nb keymap and a Jupyter keymap) but they should be only scoped to Notebook (meaning you can install a sublime keymap for the whole workbench and also a notebook keymap).

[rebornix]

Now that Jupyter is a standalone extension (no longer part of the Python extension), it makes perfect sense that the Jupyter extension contributes the Jupyter style keybindings. It would be weird that if we publish a dedicated keymap extension and make it a dependency of the Jupyter extension.

With that being said, the requirements are still there. Users may still have following requests (not that users have Jupyter extension installed)

• Users may want to only use VS Code style keybindings
  • In other words, they want to disable the Jupyter keybindings from the Jupyter extension but they can't disable the Jupyter extension
• Users may want to use the Jupyter style keybindings
  • Keybindings from extensions have higher priority than the builtin ones (as they are registered later), so they will take effect by default
• Users want to switch "keymap", e.g., Jupyter users will use Jupyter style keybindings when they try VS Code the very first time but later on might switch to VS Code ones

Allowing the Jupyter ones to be disabled and switching between keybinding set easily is the major problem to solve. A domain specific keymap is kind of appealing:

• Users can install a Vim keymap and the Jupyter extension at the same time. The Jupyter extension declares it as a keymap for Notebook so they can be enabled at the same time
• Users can disable the keybindings from the Jupyter extension someway

But it comes with too many open questions: how do users disable the sub keymap? how do extensions contribute a sub keymap? how do extension declare which keybinding contributions belong to this domain level keymap? If we take one step back and ask ourselves, is this generic enough and deserving such a fancy solution?

Considering the complexity of introducing a new concept of sub keymap, we can now go with a pragmatic solution: adding a setting useJupyterKeybinding to the extension and then put it into the when clause to relevant keybindings. Enabling/disabling the keybindings is only a matter of flipping the setting.

cc @sandy081 , FYI just in case we have similar ideas brought up else where or sometime in the future.
cc @DonJayamanne , I can send a PR for Jupyter extension to allow enabling/disabling the Jupyter style keybindings.

[sandy081]

• Users may want to only use VS Code style keybindings

• In other words, they want to disable the Jupyter keybindings from the Jupyter extension but they can't disable the Jupyter extension

This can be solved by creating a Jupyter extension pack - Jupyter notebook extension + Jupyter keymap extension. Users can disable the keymap extension independent of notebook extension. There are also discussions going on about introducing optional dependencies, but I think extension pack is an appropriate solution here as there is no any code dependencies here.

CCing @alexdima for switching keymaps.

IMO it would be cool to allow user to switch keymaps. For eg., Show the list of keymap extensions in the quick pick (like themes) and allow user to switch. Internally, we can disable all other keymap extensions.

[alexdima]

👍 on having multiple extensions.

Personally, I don't think keybindings should be shipped together with an extension that provides important functionality because keybindings are so personal to people, and the main selling point of the extension is the important functionality, not the keybindings of the established software.

In other words, IMHO people would want to install the Jupyter extension for the Jupyter Notebooks functionality, and can then optionally install Jupyter keybindings if they really want those keybindings.

[DonJayamanne]

Thanks, so the recommendation is to create a separate extension for the keybindings, sounds simple.
We'll (owners of the Jupyter extension) create one, unless you guys were planning on creating this.