Can't enter a backslash into a cell (e.g. needed for the markdown formula feature).

[winnieXY]

Description of your problem

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Create a notebookk and add a markdown cell
2. Try to enter "$$ \frac{1}{2} $$ into that cell
3. The "" is not entered. You're however able to copy that character into the cell.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
That you can enter latex formulas within the markdown without any issues.

Please provide any additional information below (stack trace, screenshots, a gif, etc)
I think no screenshot needed - however feel free to contact me if you need one.

Versions and main components

• Spyder Version: 5.4.3
• Python Version: 3.11.5
• Qt Version: 5.15.2
• PyQt Version: 5.15.10
• Jupyter Notebook Version: 0.5.1
• Operating system: Windows 10

Dependencies

Please go to the menu entry Help > Optional Dependencies (or
Help > Dependencies), press the button Copy to clipboard
and paste the contents below:

Mandatory:

atomicwrites >=1.2.0 : 1.4.0 (OK)
chardet >=2.0.0 : 4.0.0 (OK)
cloudpickle >=0.5.0 : 2.2.1 (OK)
cookiecutter >=1.6.0 : 2.5.0 (OK)
diff_match_patch >=20181111 : 20200713 (OK)
intervaltree >=3.0.2 : 3.1.0 (OK)
IPython >=7.31.1,<9.0.0,!=8.8.0,!=8.9.0,!=8.10.0 : 8.15.0 (OK)
jedi >=0.17.2,<0.19.0 : 0.18.1 (OK)
jellyfish >=0.7 : 1.0.1 (OK)
jsonschema >=3.2.0 : 4.19.2 (OK)
keyring >=17.0.0 : 23.13.1 (OK)
nbconvert >=4.0 : 7.7.1 (OK)
numpydoc >=0.6.0 : 1.5.0 (OK)
paramiko >=2.4.0 : 2.8.1 (OK)
parso >=0.7.0,<0.9.0 : 0.8.3 (OK)
pexpect >=4.4.0 : 4.8.0 (OK)
pickleshare >=0.4 : 0.7.5 (OK)
psutil >=5.3 : 5.9.0 (OK)
pygments >=2.0 : 2.15.1 (OK)
pylint >=2.5.0,<3.0 : 2.16.2 (OK)
pylint_venv >=2.1.1 : 2.3.0 (OK)
pyls_spyder >=0.4.0 : 0.4.0 (OK)
pylsp >=1.7.2,<1.8.0 : 1.7.2 (OK)
pylsp_black >=1.2.0 : 1.2.1 (OK)
qdarkstyle >=3.0.2,<3.2.0 : 3.0.2 (OK)
qstylizer >=0.2.2 : 0.2.2 (OK)
qtawesome >=1.2.1 : 1.2.2 (OK)
qtconsole >=5.4.2,<5.5.0 : 5.4.2 (OK)
qtpy >=2.1.0 : 2.4.1 (OK)
rtree >=0.9.7 : 1.0.1 (OK)
setuptools >=49.6.0 : 68.0.0 (OK)
sphinx >=0.6.6 : 5.0.2 (OK)
spyder_kernels >=2.4.3,<2.5.0 : 2.4.4 (OK)
textdistance >=4.2.0 : 4.2.1 (OK)
three_merge >=0.1.1 : 0.1.1 (OK)
watchdog >=0.10.3 : 2.1.6 (OK)
zmq >=22.1.0 : 25.1.0 (OK)

Optional:

cython >=0.21 : 3.0.0 (OK)
matplotlib >=3.0.0 : 3.8.0 (OK)
numpy >=1.7 : 1.26.2 (OK)
pandas >=1.1.1 : 2.1.1 (OK)
scipy >=0.17.0 : 1.11.4 (OK)
sympy >=0.7.3 : 1.12 (OK)

Spyder plugins:

spyder_notebook.notebookplugin 0.5.1 : 0.5.1 (OK)
spyder_terminal.terminalplugin 1.2.2 : 1.2.2 (OK)

[winnieXY]

Any news on that? I would really love to see that working in order to write my documentation without hazzle within spyder

[jitseniesen]

@winnieXY Thanks for the reminder and sorry for not replying earlier. I just tried with a fresh conda install on Linux and it works for me, I have no problems typing the backslash. Maybe it's specific to Windows 10, or Windows in general. How did you install Spyder and the spyder_notebook plugin?

[winnieXY]

Helllo @jitseniesen,
no problem :-)
I'm using conda under Windows 10 and installed both via conda, but I can try to reproduce this issue on Linux later today.

[IsaTaup]

Hey I have the same issue - can't write backslash in spyder notebook cells.
Did a fresh Spyder installation via conda (miniconda) on win11 (Dell latitude with german keyboard layout) plus the spyder-notebook plugin.
Everything works fine - except i am by any means not able to type in backslash (alt gr + ß or strg + alt + ß) in the notebook pane. All the brackets work, copy pasting backslash works and in the editor pane it works also. Its just the backslash shortcut that doesnt work in spyder-notebook cells.
After two days of extensive google search and deleting / resetting all shorcuts from spyder settings, uninstalling, re-installing, updating everything I ran out of ideas and this issue drives me nuts - can anyone help?

[jitseniesen]

@IsaTaup I don't know ... your issue seems to be slightly different in that you can copy-and-paste backslash which did not work for the original poster, but I understand that is not very satisfactory, especially if you want to write latex in your notebook.

Thanks for mentioning you have a German keyboard, that is probably relevant. There is a similar issue in Jupyter at jupyter/notebook#2469 but I would guess that they resolved it by now. It mentions some workarounds: Type "´" (acute) before AltGr-ß, or the ascii code alt+92.

Just to clarify: if you open a notebook in Jupyter in your web browser, you can type a backslash? What version of Spyder notebook do you have (in Spyder, go to Help > Dependencies and scroll to the bottom).

[IsaTaup]

@jitseniesen thank you for your fast reply!
I have the latest Spyder-notebook version 0.5.1
The workaround with "´" and the ascii code do not work.
In Jupyter-notebook i dont have this issue.

[etiennebresciani]

Same issue here: cannot write backslash in a cell, can copy it. Annoying...

PS: I have a Spanish keyboard.

[jitseniesen]

Thanks, it is good to know that Spanish keyboards also have this problem, that may make it easier to reproduce it on our side. I expect that a new version of Spyder and the notebook plugin will be released very soon which upgrades several components. Maybe that will resolve the issue (but I'm not hopeful). If not, I have one idea which might help but this is going to be tricky.

[winnieXY]

@IsaTaup I don't know ... your issue seems to be slightly different in that you can copy-and-paste backslash which did not work for the original poster, but I understand that is not very satisfactory, especially if you want to write latex in your notebook.

Thanks for mentioning you have a German keyboard, that is probably relevant. There is a similar issue in Jupyter at jupyter/notebook#2469 but I would guess that they resolved it by now. It mentions some workarounds: Type "´" (acute) before AltGr-ß, or the ascii code alt+92.

Just to clarify: if you open a notebook in Jupyter in your web browser, you can type a backslash? What version of Spyder notebook do you have (in Spyder, go to Help > Dependencies and scroll to the bottom).

Hey,

No the issue is exactly the same. I can also copy& paste the backslash. I'm too in a German keyboard.