IdeaVim Cursor Behavior Difference Between Local and Remote Development via JetBrains Gateway

[shellphy]

Hello JetBrains Team,

I am experiencing an issue with the IdeaVim plugin where the cursor behavior differs between my local development environment and when using JetBrains Gateway for remote development. Specifically, the issue relates to the transition from insert mode to normal mode in Vim.

Environment:

• IDE: Phpstorm and Gateway
• IdeaVim plugin version: 2.8.4
• Remote development setup: azure ubuntu linux and wsl2 ubuntu linux

Issue Description:
In my local development environment, when I press ESC to switch from insert mode to normal mode, the cursor behavior aligns with standard Vim behavior: it moves one character to the left (or equivalently, it appears that the cursor does not move but the inserted character shifts the cursor position to the right, and then exiting insert mode moves it back to its original position).

However, when using JetBrains Gateway for remote development, pressing ESC to transition from insert mode to normal mode does not exhibit the same behavior. The cursor does not move back one character to the left, resulting in a discrepancy where the cursor remains one position to the right compared to its expected location in standard Vim behavior.

This inconsistency affects the editing flow and efficiency, especially for users heavily reliant on Vim keybindings and behavior.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Start editing a file in insert mode locally and observe the cursor behavior upon exiting insert mode.
2. Connect to a remote development environment using JetBrains Gateway and open the same or a similar file.
3. Enter insert mode, type a character, then exit to normal mode and observe the cursor position compared to the local environment.

Expected Behavior:
The cursor behavior when exiting insert mode in both local and remote development environments via JetBrains Gateway should be consistent, adhering to standard Vim behavior.

Actual Behavior:
There is a noticeable difference in cursor behavior when exiting insert mode between local and remote development setups, with the remote environment not moving the cursor back one character to the left.

Additional Information:

• No.ideavimrc configuration is set
• Whether the issue persists across different remote environments or specific to a certain configuration.

I would appreciate any guidance on resolving this issue or any known workarounds. Thank you for your support.

Best regards,

[citizenmatt]

Hi there. I see this comment has been closed. Just to follow up, there's a related ticket in YouTrack here: VIM-3237. It does seem to be an issue while using Gateway and remote development, but there isn't a fix or workaround right now, unfortunately. We're hoping to make some improvements to IdeaVim's support in Gateway soon.