JupyterLab Version 4.2.1 barely useable due to a variety of glitches

[jbusecke]

Hey folks, first time on the forum, loooong time Jupyter User and Fan.

I have been having a hard time using recent versions of JupyterLab (via the GitHub - pangeo-data/pangeo-docker-images: Docker Images For Pangeo Jupyter Environment) due to multiple glitches that occur in the UI:

• When I scroll the notebook ‘jumps’ back repeatedly until I eventually get to the spot I want to go to. This is by far the worst of the glitches, it just totally derailed my from doing a hard science problem I wanted to progress on today .
• The next worst thing is that when I create new cells in a notebook, they get randomly placed in the notebook, just not below the current active, cell. What is even worse is that they then sometimes dissapear/appear when I scroll. Again super disrupting.
• Lastly the shift+tab completion is both unreliable and inconsistent. I use this feature a TON (did not realized it until it did not work anymore), but very often nothing will happen when I press this combo. More confusingly in the newer versions of JupyterLab sometimes it opens a different styles of pop over (looks like vs code) and sometimes it opens the style I am used to from older versions.

Sorry for dropping all these at once here, but since they all seemed related to the UI, and I am a complete noob in diagnosing problems there I figured I group them all together and maybe somebody here can provide some advice on how to dig deeper?

I have already tried safari, Chrome, Firefox. Safari is the worst, but the others do not fix these problems. I am using JupyterLab via a 2i2c Hub at LEAP, and am currently on the 2024.06.02 tag.

If there is other info I could provide to help, please let me know.

[jbusecke]

I have some screencaps of these, but am not sure what the best way to share those here is?

[krassowski]

@jbusecke

• When I scroll the notebook ‘jumps’ back repeatedly until I eventually get to the spot I want to go to. This is by far the worst of the glitches, it just totally derailed my from doing a hard science problem I wanted to progress on today .

If you go to Settings → Settings Editor → Notebook → Windowing mode → none, does it stop? Can you share a notebook in which this is happening and the browser name and version?

@jbusecke

• The next worst thing is that when I create new cells in a notebook, they get randomly placed in the notebook, just not below the current active, cell. What is even worse is that they then sometimes dissapear/appear when I scroll. Again super disrupting.

This sounds very bad. Does it happen on Safari only? We are aware of a Safari-specifc regression ("Add Cell" regression in 4.2.x on Safari · Issue #16373 · jupyterlab/jupyterlab · GitHub) which might explain this and the previous point. Upgrading Safari to patched version (unfortunately not yet released, Technology Preview) or switching windowing mode to none should help.

@jbusecke

• Lastly the shift+tab completion is both unreliable and inconsistent. I use this feature a TON (did not realized it until it did not work anymore), but very often nothing will happen when I press this combo. More confusingly in the newer versions of JupyterLab sometimes it opens a different styles of pop over (looks like vs code) and sometimes it opens the style I am used to from older versions.

A screenshot would be helpful. I do not know of any alternative pop over. Do you have any extensions installed?

[jbusecke]

Thanks for the quick reply. I am testing this now and will get back to you. Many thanks for the advice.

[jbusecke]

If you go to Settings → Settings Editor → Notebook → Windowing mode → none, does it stop? Can you share a notebook in which this is happening and the browser name and version?

This already seems to improve the situation A LOT. Many thanks. Is there an issue pertaining to this, that I could reference? Either way I have asked if we can change the default setting for Windowing mode on the pangeo-docker-images, or is there a reason not to do that?

Ill keep investigating the other issues. Again HUGE thanks for this fix!

[krassowski]

is there a reason not to do that?

Nothing major, but I would probably choose defer rather than none (this will still give some performance benefit on inital loading). Mostly this is a trade-off between some notebooks using complex widgets having the issue when scrolling vs the performence improvements from windowing (so that you can smoothly work with much larger notebooks). The exact cause of the problematic behaviour is to be confirmed (see below).

Is there an issue pertaining to this, that I could reference?

There is a previous report of a similar problem in Scroll Jumps and jarring effect with full windowing mode · Issue #16326 · jupyterlab/jupyterlab · GitHub. An isolated reproducer of the issue (if you can create one, ideally with as little third-party dependencies as possible) would be of a huge help to improving the full windowing mode.

[philpatton]

@krassowski

If you go to Settings → Settings Editor → Notebook → Windowing mode → none, does it stop? Can you share a notebook in which this is happening and the browser name and version?

Thanks to you both for raising and addressing this issue! I was starting to lose my mind a little bit, constantly refreshing notebooks to find the lost cells. This fix worked perfectly for me. Thanks again!