Console loses cursor focus to help

[nerdfever]

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Open Spyder 5.1.5 (on Windows) with default panes
2. Load source into the editor, wait for Kite to parse it
3. Click on the Variable Explorer tab (upper-right pane)
4. Click on the console
5. Type the name of a source code function that has a docstring.

As soon as you type the last letter of the function name that uniquely idenfies the function, the Variable Explorer pane goes away and is replaced by the Help pane, with the function docsrtring and related info displayed.

AND the cursor focus is no longer in the Console window. To finish typing your line in the Console, you must to click in the Console pane.

This is very similar to (closed) issue 3317 at #3317.

I find the unasked-for help mildly annoying (I want to continue to look at the Variable Explorer).

But that's minor compared to losing cursor focus.

[ccordoba12]

Hey @nerdfever, thanks for reporting. Although it's unclear in your bug report, I guess you have this option enabled, right?

If that's the case, then I can't reproduce this with the latest Spyder (5.3.0):

So, please download our Windows installer for 5.3.0 from here and try again with it.

[nerdfever]

Yes, problem doesn't exist in 5.3.0.

I still would perfer to keep seeing the Variable Explorer unless I hit F2 (or something). Maybe that can be an option someday...

But this is workable - thanks!!

[ccordoba12]

I still would perfer to keep seeing the Variable Explorer unless I hit F2 (or something). Maybe that can be an option someday...

What do you mean by this? Do you want that when the IPython console is automatically connected to Help, we don't change the focus to the second pane after typing parenthesis on the first?

[nerdfever]

Sorry for not being clear.

I mean I'd like to uncheck the boxes under Tools>Preferences>Help>Automatic Connections (so that the help pane doesn't automatically replace the Variable Explorer pane), but still have the option to press F2 (or some other unoccupied key binding) to get the Help pane, with automatic contents, when I want it.

While I'm wishing (of course it's terribly unfair to ask for things from people who do this on a volunteer basis, but...):

• Refactoring - this is the most important thing missing from Spyder
• Oh how I'd love to see Kite replaced with Open AI Codex or similar. Someday I'm sure.

As always, thanks for your work on Spyder!!

[nerdfever]

Is there a way to install Spyder 5.3.0 in the Anaconda environment?

5.3.0 is not finding my installed packages (esp. win32api); I tried installing the 5.3.0 Spyder_64bit_full.exe at the same location where Anaconda put spyder.exe (for me, c:/Program_Files/Anaconda3/Scripts), but no joy.

[ccordoba12]

No, it's not possible, sorry.

[nerdfever]

Thanks. Solution was WinPython. (The Spyder_64bit_full.exe install doesn't include PIP, which was the problem.)