How can I block comment code in the IPython notebook?

Question

I have defined a function in an IPython notebook and would like to be able to block comment a section of it. Intuitively, I\'d expect to be able to highlight a section of code,

Answer 1

Default solution

In IPython 2.x and 3.x (cmd|ctrl)-/ works but requires an english (american) keyboard layout, see https://github.com/ipython/ipython/pull/3673.

Other keyboard layouts

In case you have a non-english keyboard layout, you can define a custom keybinding for the codemirror editor via your custom.js. To this end add e.g. the following lines

define([
    'base/js/namespace',
    'base/js/events'
    ],
    function(IPython, events) {
        events.on("app_initialized.NotebookApp",
            function () {
                IPython.Cell.options_default.cm_config.extraKeys = {"Ctrl-," : "toggleComment"};
            }
        );
    }
);

to use Ctrl+, to toggle (block) comments. I use this with a german keyboard layout and IPython 3.0. The previous solution (see edits) worked fine with chrome, but not with firefox.

Old solution (IPython 1.x)

If you are using IPython 1.x you can try the comment-uncomment.js from https://github.com/ipython-contrib/IPython-notebook-extensions - I haven't tried this yet, but I guess its a good start.