notebook setting to not show placeholder text in a stdin box (such as created by input())

setting to not show placeholder text in a stdin box (such as created by input())

Open gianoddone opened this issue 1 year ago • 3 comments

Problem

The placeholder text that appears in the stdin box produced by using python's input() function is distracting in cases where the input() is used to gather specific input, such as in a loop that repeatedly queries the user. Knowing about keyboard shortcuts for revisiting or searching stdin history is not useful in all contexts, and will distract the user if a simple input is requested by the program. Thus, it should be easy to disable the placeholder text.

This placeholder text is mentioned in https://github.com/jupyterlab/jupyterlab/pull/13937

The placeholder text currently reads, "↑↓ for history. Search history with c-↑/c-↓"

If the program is querying for a simple input like an integer, it is rather distracting/annoying to be confronted repeatedly with the placeholder text.

The possibility to turn off the placeholder text would be very useful when the placeholder text becomes annoying

Proposed Solution

Add a setting to turn off the placeholder text. Add this setting to the documentation so that it is possible for an ordinary user to find it. Or better, user can opt-in to placeholder text if desired.