Question: how to insert a Python docstring?

[brunobord]

Hello there,

I've been toying around Helix recently, and one of the little annoyances is the way matching pairs are inserted all together. And it disturbs something a regular Python dev does quite frequently: inserting multi-line docstrings.

For the record, a docstring is a quote-surrounded text at the beginning of a function or a class method to explain the goal of the code block. Example (silly, but the most important is the docstring syntax here):

def add(x: int, y: int) -> int:
    """
    Add to int together and return the result
    """
    return x + y

It's not mandatory, but a good practice is to wrap the docstring around multiple double-quotes.

In many other code editors I've used in the past (Atom, nvim, Gram, Pulsar, to name a few), I just have to hit the " three times, and it creates the following string: """""" (six double-quotes). At this point, the cursor is right in the middle, between the 3rd and the 4th character. So I just have to hit Return and I can write my docstring.

In Helix, it's not that smooth.

Hitting " three times leads to this result: """ ; and the cursor is positioned right after the third ".

Hitting " six times gives this: """""" ; six nice double-quotes, but the cursor is positioned after the last ". So now I have to move three characters to the left and then I can start writing.

With my poor helix skills, I've managed to build a macro, which is probably far from optimal, and link it to a keyboard shortcut.

[keys.normal]
# [..]
"A-g" = '@i""""""<esc>3hi<ret><backspace>'

It adds 6 ", moves 3 times left, switches to insert mode, hit return to "split" the string in the middle, and hit backspace because for some reason, the cursor is indented improperly.

But I was wondering if there was a more elegant and direct way, by any chance?

[daveshenal]

Hello👋

This is a known limitation and there is an open issue tracking exactly this auto pair behavior with triple quotes: #13697. So its not something you are missing, its a real gap in the current auto-pair logic.

A cleaner workaround than a macro: disable auto-pairing for " specifically in Python.
Add this to languages.toml in your config directory (~/.config/helix/languages.toml on Linux/macOS, %AppData%\helix\languages.toml on Windows):

[[language]]
name = "python"

[language.auto-pairs]
'(' = ')'
'{' = '}'
'[' = ']'
"'" = "'"
'`' = '`'

Leaving " out of that table turns off auto closing for double quotes in Python files only and other pairs keep auto pairing normally. Then writing a docstring is fully manual: type """, Enter, write your text, type """ on the closing line. No macro or cursor gymnastics needed. Run :config-reload after saving the file.

[brunobord]

thanks a lot for the tip. Indeed, it works, even if it's a bit less convenient. I've subscribed to the issue, just in case.