Console does not type right parenthesis immediately when there are big objects present in its namespace

Description

What steps will reproduce the problem?

Typing ( in the integrated iPython console often prevents calling functions for about a minute. For example, if I type print('Hello world!') in the console, the following usually happens:

• The console initially doesn’t display the (, e.g. it displays print'Hello world!').
• On pressing the ( key, the help window does not change to display the docstring of the current function (as it should do).
• If I press enter, the function is not executed and I get the ... continuation prompt.
• I can still run scripts from the editor pane with F5 etc. and can continue to use the editor as normal.
• I cannot execute anything from the console (directly), even if I delete the typed command.
• After a while (anything from 10 seconds to over a minute), the ( character is displayed at the end of the console prompt, e.g. it becomes print'Hello world')( and the help window updates to display the documentation for the print command. It is now possible to type and execute new commands in the console, although pressing enter immediately obviously gives a syntax error:

    print'Hello world!')(
                      ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

This doesn’t happen all the time, but generally occurs most times ( is typed in the console as part of a function or method call. It will happen for any function/method (even if that function/method doesn’t exist (e.g. blah()). This issue does not occur for typing ( for other purposes (e.g. (1+2)/3 is fine). This issue does not occur for anything which is typed in the editor.

My guess is that this is some issue related to the help window, as the help window contents should be updated when ( is typed as part of a function/method call.

Versions

• Spyder version: 3.3.1
• Python version: 3.6.6
• Qt version: 5.9.6
• PyQt5 version: 5.9.2
• Operating System: Darwin 17.7.0

Dependencies

IPython >=4.0     :  7.1.1 (OK)
cython >=0.21     :  0.29 (OK)
jedi >=0.9.0      :  0.13.1 (OK)
matplotlib >=2.0.0:  3.0.1 (OK)
nbconvert >=4.0   :  5.3.1 (OK)
numpy >=1.7       :  1.15.3 (OK)
pandas >=0.13.1   :  0.23.4 (OK)
psutil >=0.3      :  5.4.8 (OK)
pycodestyle >=2.3 :  2.4.0 (OK)
pyflakes >=0.6.0  :  2.0.0 (OK)
pygments >=2.0    :  2.2.0 (OK)
pylint >=0.25     :  2.1.1 (OK)
qtconsole >=4.2.0 :  4.4.2 (OK)
rope >=0.9.4      :  0.11.0 (OK)
sphinx >=0.6.6    :  1.8.1 (OK)
sympy >=0.7.3     :  1.3 (OK)

[ccordoba12]

it looks like the issue only occurs when Preferences > Help > IPython Console is enabled.

That’s because that’s equivalent to have

Tools > Preferences > IPython Console > Display > Display balloon tips

activated.

The problem usually appears when there are very big objects in your namespace (e.g. big dataframes). Is that the case for you?

[1313e]

If I can add to this; I get this problem every time I try to use getattr() in the IPython console, regardless of what is currently present in my namespace (I can open a new one, not import anything at all, and it will still have that problem).