An interface to communicate with Jupyter kernels in Emacs. [[https://travis-ci.com/dzop/emacs-jupyter][https://travis-ci.com/dzop/emacs-jupyter.svg?branch=master]] * What does this package do? This package provides an API for communicating with a Jupyter kernel via =zmq= sockets (http://github.com/dzop/emacs-zmq). It utilizes Emacs' object implementation, =eieio=, to define Jupyter client and kernel manager classes that can be sub-classed to provide support for any kind of Jupyter frontend which communicates directly with a kernel in Emacs. Currently, there is a built-in REPL frontend and =org-mode= source block frontend. The base Jupyter client class tries to provide good default implementations for handling common message replies from a kernel that integrate well with Emacs' built-in features. For example sending an inspect request will display the inspect reply in the =*Help*= buffer and previous inspect requests can be revisited by calling =help-go-back= or =help=go-forward= in the =*Help*= buffer, making completion requests to a kernel is done through the =completion-at-point= interface, and if the kernel asks for input from the user, a prompt is displayed in the minibuffer. These are just a few of the ways that this package integrates with Emacs' built-in features. ** Other features *** Support differences between kernel languages To take into account differences between kernel languages, there are many methods that can be extended to take into account these differences. This is achieved by providing a method specializer, =jupyter-lang=, that can be added to the =&context= section of a method definition. See =cl-generic-generalizers=. For example, the Python kernel sends =text/plain= data in its inspect replies, but most of the time the documentation requested is written using reStructuredText (rST) markup, the officially supported markup language for documentation strings in Python. In =emacs-jupyter= all insertion of messages into a buffer is handled by the =jupyter-insert= method. This method is extended to properly highlight rST when an inspect reply message is being inserted and the message is from a Python kernel. See the files =jupyter-python.el= and =jupyter-julia.el= for how these languages are integrated into the =emacs-jupyter= framework. * How do I install this package? At the moment, the easiest way to install this package is by using =cask= (https://github.com/cask/cask) to build a local package file to install in your Emacs. To do this, clone the repository, enter its directory, and run the following at the command line: #+BEGIN_SRC shell cask package #+END_SRC This creates a file =dist/jupyter-0.6.0.tar= containing the package archive. To install it 1. Start your Emacs normally 2. Ensure MELPA is in your =package-archives= 3. =M-x package-initialize= 4. =M-x package-refresh-contents= 5. =M-x package-install-file ~/path/to/jupyter/dist/jupyter-0.6.0.tar= ** Manual installation For a manual installation you can add the repository directory to your =load-path= and ensure the following dependencies are installed: - markdown-mode (optional) :: https://jblevins.org/projects/markdown-mode/ - company-mode (optional) :: http://company-mode.github.io/ - emacs-websocket :: https://github.com/ahyatt/emacs-websocket - simple-httpd :: https://github.com/skeeto/emacs-web-server - zmq :: http://github.com/dzop/emacs-zmq #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (add-to-list 'load-path "~/path/to/jupyter") (require 'jupyter) #+END_SRC ** Building the widget support (EXPERIMENTAL) :PROPERTIES: :ID: 59559FA3-59AD-453F-93E7-113B43F85493 :END: There is also support for interacting with Jupyter widgets through an external browser. If a widget is to be displayed, an external browser is opened first to display the widget. In this case, Emacs acts as a relay for passing messages between the kernel and the external browser. If you would like to try out this limited support, you will need to have =node= installed on your system to build the necessary javascript. Then you will have to run the following commands from the root project directory: #+BEGIN_SRC shell make widgets #+END_SRC * How does this package compare to other similar packages? There are two popular packages that implement similar functionality to this one - ob-ipython :: https://github.com/gregsexton/ob-ipython - Interacts with a Jupyter kernel via =org-mode= source blocks. - emacs-ipython-notebook (ein) :: https://github.com/millejoh/emacs-ipython-notebook - A Jupyter notebook interface in Emacs. =emacs-jupyter= extends the features of =ob-ipython= by integrating more with =org-mode= and providing a better REPL interface to the kernel. For example, =ob-ipython= currently does not provide a function for =org-babel-load-in-session=. =ob-ipython= also starts a new process for every request since it relies on calling a Python script to send and receive messages whereas =emacs-jupyter= directly uses =zmq= sockets via =emacs-zmq= for communication and only starts a process on every new client connection. This difference in how messages are passed between Emacs and a kernel is notable when making completion requests. =ob-ipython= will incur the overhead of starting up a new process /and/ new sockets on every completion request which can potentially be every keystroke if you type slow enough. =ein= is more of a full featured solution for a Jupyter notebook interface in Emacs. The goals of =emacs-jupyter= and =ein= are different. =ein= aims to be a frontend to the Jupyter notebook server API (https://github.com/jupyter/jupyter/wiki/Jupyter-Notebook-Server-API) which is an extra layer between the user and a kernel (https://jupyter.readthedocs.io/en/latest/architecture/how_jupyter_ipython_work.html#notebooks). In addition to being notebook client, =ein= offers many more powerful features for Python kernels. =emacs-jupyter=, on the other hand, offers an API that implements the Jupyter messaging protocol for communication with a kernel via =zmq= sockets. The API tries to integrate the interaction between the user and a kernel with built-in Emacs features. The REPL support and =org-mode= integration are examples of how the API can be used. In the future, it would be nice to add some kind of notebook interface in =emacs-jupyter= or at least an efficient conversion process between notebook files and =org-mode=. * Jupyter REPL To start a new kernel on the =localhost= and connect a REPL client to it, run the command =jupyter-run-repl=. Alternatively you can connect to an existing kernel by supplying the kernel's connection file to =jupyter-connect-repl=. The REPL supports most of the rich output that a kernel may send to a client. If the kernel requests a widget to be displayed, a browser is opened that displays the widget. If the kernel sends image data, the image will be displayed in the REPL buffer. If LaTeX is sent, it will be compiled (using =org-mode=) and displayed. The currently available mimetypes and their dependencies are: ** Rich kernel output A Jupyter kernel provides many representations of results that may be used by the frontend, in this case Emacs. Luckily, Emacs provides good support for most of the available representations. The supported mimetypes along with their dependencies are shown below in order of priority if multiple representations are returned. Note, if a dependency is not available in your Emacs, a mimetype with a lower priority will be used to display output. | Mimetype | Dependency | |--------------------------------------------+---------------------------| | =application/vnd.jupyter.widget-view+json= | [[https://github.com/ahyatt/emacs-websocket][websocket]], [[https://github.com/skeeto/emacs-web-server][simple-httpd]] | | =text/html= | Emacs built with libxml2 | | =text/markdown= | [[https://jblevins.org/projects/markdown-mode/][markdown-mode]] | | =text/latex= | [[https://orgmode.org/][org-mode]] | | =image/svg+xml= | Emacs built with librsvg2 | | =image/png= | none | | =text/plain= | none | ** Inspection To send an inspect request to the kernel, press =C-c C-f= when the cursor is at the location of the code you would like to inspect. ** Completion Completion is implemented through the =completion-at-point= interface. In addition to completing symbols in the REPL buffer, completion also works in buffers [[id:DA597E05-E9A9-4DCE-BBD7-6D25238638C5][associated]] with a REPL. For =org-mode= users, there is even completion in the =org-mode= buffer when editing the contents of a Jupyter source code block. ** REPL history You can navigate through the REPL history using =C-n= and =C-p= or =M-n= and =M-p=. You can also search through the history using =isearch=. To search through history, use the standard =isearch= keybindings: =C-s= to search forward through history and =C-s C-r= to search backward. ** Associating other buffers with a REPL :PROPERTIES: :ID: DA597E05-E9A9-4DCE-BBD7-6D25238638C5 :END: After starting a REPL, it is possible to associate the REPL with other buffers if they pass certain criteria. Currently, the buffer must have the =major-mode= that corresponds to the REPL's kernel language. To associate a buffer with a REPL you can run the command =jupyter-repl-associate-buffer=. =jupyter-repl-associate-buffer= will ask you for the REPL you would like to associate with the =current-buffer= and enable the minor mode =jupyter-repl-interaction-mode=. This minor mode populates the following keybindings for interacting with the REPL: | Key binding | Command | |-------------+------------------------------------| | =C-M-x= | =jupyter-eval-defun= | | =M-i= | =jupyter-inspect-at-point= | | =C-c C-b= | =jupyter-eval-buffer= | | =C-c C-c= | =jupyter-eval-line-or-region= | | =C-c C-i= | =jupyter-repl-interrupt-kernel= | | =C-c C-r= | =jupyter-repl-restart-kernel= | | =C-c C-s= | =jupyter-repl-scratch-buffer= | | =C-c M-:= | =jupyter-eval-string= | ** =jupyter-repl-persistent-mode= A global minor mode that will persist the current Jupyter kernel connection if the current buffer is in =jupyter-repl-interaction-mode= and a buffer with the same =major-mode= as the current buffer is displayed or switched to. This mode is automatically enabled whenever =jupyter-run-repl= or =jupyter-connect-repl= is called. ** Widget support There is also support for Jupyter widgets integrated into the REPL. If any of the results returned by a kernel have a widget representation, a browser is opened and the widget is displayed in the browser. There is only one browser per client. This feature is currently considered experimental and has only been tested for simple uses of widgets. See [[id:B15FF43B-114C-4D73-B69C-2095F108EBBB][=jupyter-widget-client=]]. * Integration with =org-mode= For users of =org-mode=, integration with =org-babel= is provided through the =ob-jupyter= library. To enable Jupyter support for source code blocks, add =jupyter= to =org-babel-load-languages=. #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (org-babel-do-load-languages 'org-babel-load-languages '((emacs-lisp . t) (julia . t) (python . t) (jupyter . t)) #+END_SRC Note, =jupyter= should be added as the last element when loading languages since it depends on the values of variables such as =org-src-lang-modes= and =org-babel-tangle-lang-exts=. After =ob-jupyter= has been loaded, new source code blocks with names of the form =jupy-LANG= will be available. =LANG= can be any one of the kernel languages found on your system. See =jupyter-available-kernelspecs=. Every Jupyter source code block requires that the =:session= parameter be specified since all interaction with a kernel is through a REPL. For example, to interact with a =python= kernel you would create a new source block like so #+BEGIN_SRC org ,#+BEGIN_SRC jupy-python :session py x = 'foo' y = 'bar' x + ' ' + y ,#+END_SRC #+END_SRC By default, source blocks are executed synchronously. To execute a source block asynchronously set the =:async= parameter to =yes=: #+BEGIN_SRC org ,#+BEGIN_SRC jupy-python :session py :async yes x = 'foo' y = 'bar' x + ' ' + y ,#+END_SRC #+END_SRC Since a particular language may have multiple kernels available, the default kernel used will be the first one found by =jupyter-available-kernelspecs= for the language. To change the kernel, set the =:kernel= parameter: #+BEGIN_SRC org ,#+BEGIN_SRC jupy-python :session py :async yes :kernel python2 x = 'foo' y = 'bar' x + ' ' + y ,#+END_SRC #+END_SRC Note, the same session name can be used for different values of =:kernel= since the underlying REPL buffer's name is based on both =:session= and =:kernel=. Any of the defaults for a language can be changed by setting =org-babel-default-header-args:jupy-LANG= to an appropriate value. For example to change the defaults for the =julia= kernel, you can set =org-babel-default-header-args:jupy-julia= to something like #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (setq org-babel-default-header-args:jupy-julia '((:async . "yes") (:session . "jl") (:kernel . "julia-1.0"))) #+END_SRC ** Rich kernel output In =org-mode= a code block returns scalar data (plain text, numbers, lists, tables, \dots), an image file name, or code from another language. All of this information must be specified in the code block's header arguments, but all of this information is already provided in the messages passed between a Jupyter kernel and its frontends. When a kernel provides representations of results other than plain text, those richer representations are prioritized over plain text. For example if the kernel returns LaTeX code, the results are wrapped in a LaTeX source block. Similarly for HTML and markdown. If an image is returned, the image is automatically saved to file and a link to the file will be the result of the code block. Below are the supported mimetypes ordered by priority - text/org - image/svg+xml, image/jpeg, image/png - text/html - text/markdown - text/latex - text/plain *** Image output without the =:file= header argument For images sent by the kernel, if no =:file= parameter is provided to the code block, a file name is automatically generated based on the image data and the image is written to file in =org-babel-jupyter-resource-directory=. This is great for quickly generating throw-away plots while your are working on your code. Once you are happy with your results you can specify the =:file= parameter to fix the file name. ** Editing the contents of a code block When editing a Jupyter code block's contents, i.e. by pressing =C-c '= when at a code block, =jupyter-repl-interaction-mode= is automatically enabled in the edit buffer and the buffer will be associated with the REPL session of the code block (see =jupyter-repl-associate-buffer=). You may also bind the command =org-babel-jupyter-scratch-buffer= to an appropriate key in =org-mode= to display a scratch buffer in the code block's =major-mode= and connected to the code block's session. ** Connecting to an existing kernel To connect to an existing kernel, pass the kernel's connection file as the value of the =:session= parameter. The name of the file must have a =.json= suffix for this to work. *** Remote kernels If the connection file is a [[https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Remote-Files.html][remote file name]], i.e. has a prefix like =/host:=, the kernel's ports are assumed to live on =host=. Before attempting to connect to the kernel, =ssh= tunnels for the connection are created. So if you had a remote kernel on a host named =ec2= whose connection file is =/run/user/1000/jupyter/kernel-julia-0.6.json= on that host, you would specify the =:session= as #+BEGIN_SRC org ,#+BEGIN_SRC jupyter-julia :session /ec2:/run/user/1000/jupyter/kernel-julia-0.6.json ... ,#+END_SRC #+END_SRC **** Password handling for remote connections Currently there is no password handling, so if your =ssh= connection requires a password I suggest you instead use [[https://www.ssh.com/ssh/keygen/][key-based authentication]]. Or if you are connecting to a server using a =pem= file add something like #+BEGIN_SRC conf Host ec2 User HostName IdentityFile .pem #+END_SRC to your =~/.ssh/config= file. ** TODO Standard output, displayed data, and code block results One significant difference between Jupyter code blocks and regular =org-mode= code blocks is that the underlying Jupyter kernel can request that the client display extra data in addition to output or the result of a code block. See [[https://jupyter-client.readthedocs.io/en/stable/messaging.html#display-data][display_data messages]]. To account for this, Jupyter code blocks do not go through the normal =org-mode= result insertion mechanism (see =org-babel-insert-result=). The downside of this is that, compared to normal code blocks, only a small subset of the header arguments common to all code blocks are supported. Currently this is only the =:file= argument for image results and =:results raw= for inserting raw latex fragments sent by the kernel. The upside is that all forms of results produced by a kernel can be inserted into the buffer similar to a Jupyter notebook. The implementation of =org-mode= code blocks is really meant to handle either capturing the standard output /or/ the result of a code block. When using Jupyter code blocks, if the kernel produces standard output or asks to display extra information, the results are appended to a =:RESULTS:= drawer. * API ** Naming conventions Methods that send messages to a kernel are named =jupyter-send-= where == is an appropriate message type. The message types are identical to those defined in the [[http://jupyter-client.readthedocs.io/en/stable/messaging.html][Jupyter spec]] with ~_~ characters replaced by ~-~ characters. So to send an =execute-request= you would call =jupyter-send-execute-request=. Similarly, methods that are responsible for handling messages received from a kernel are named =jupyter-handle-=. Methods that require a message type as an argument such as =jupyter-add-callback= should do so by passing a message type keyword such as =:execute-request=. ** Overview *** Classes - =jupyter-kernel-client= :: The base class for Jupyter frontends. Handles all message sending and receiving to/from a Jupyter kernel. - =jupyter-kernel-manager= :: The base class for starting local kernel processes. - =jupyter-widget-client= :: (EXPERIMENTAL) A subclass of =jupyter-kernel-client= that adds support for displaying Jupyter widgets in an external browser. - =jupyter-repl-client= :: A subclass of =jupyter-kernel-client= that implements a REPL. Note, a =jupyter-repl-client= also has a =jupyter-widget-client= as a parent class. - =jupyter-org-client= :: A subclass of =jupyter-repl-client= that adds support for evaluating =org-mode= source code blocks and inserting the results in the =org-mode= buffer. **** Lower level classes - =jupyter-ioloop= :: A general class for asynchronous communication with a subprocess. The subprocess polls its standard input for "events" from the parent process. To add a new event to be handled by the subprocess you use =jupyter-ioloop-add-event=. The resulting subprocess event handler created using =jupyter-ioloop-add-event= can potentially send an event back to the parent process. In the parent, events are handled by extending the =jupyter-ioloop-handler= method. - =jupyter-channel-ioloop= :: A subclass of =jupyter-ioloop= configured to start a subprocess that handles messages being passed on Jupyter channels between a kernel and the parent Emacs process. This is what =jupyter-kernel-client= uses to communicate with a kernel. *** Communicating with a kernel **** Initializing a connection For a =jupyter-kernel-client= to start communicating with a kernel, the following steps are taken: 1. Initialize the connection using =jupyter-initialize-connection= 2. Start listening on the client's channels with =jupyter-start-channels= If starting a local kernel process both steps are handled by =jupyter-start-new-kernel=. For remote kernels, you will have to manually supply the connection JSON file to =jupyter-initialize-connection= and start the kernel channels. **** Sending messages Once a connection is initialized, messages can be sent to the kernel using the =jupyter-send-= family of methods, where == is any valid request message type, see =jupyter-message-types=. These methods asynchronously send a message to the kernel using a subprocess associated with each client, see help:jupyter-channel-ioloop, and they each return a =jupyter-request= object which encapsulates the information necessary for handling reply messages received from the kernel in response to the request. **** Receiving messages There are two ways to handle the reply messages sent by the kernel: (1) subclass the =jupyter-kernel-client= and override the =jupyter-handle-= family of methods or (2) attach callbacks to the =jupyter-request= objects returned by the =jupyter-send-= methods. Both ways can occur in parallel. When a message is received, =jupyter-handle-message= is called on the client to kick off the message handling process. Any callbacks associated with the =jupyter-request= of the message are evaluated and the appropriate =jupyter-handle-= method called. Note, the default handler methods of =jupyter-kernel-client= are no-ops with the exception of =jupyter-handle-input-request= which requests input from the user and sends it to the kernel. ** =jupyter-kernel-client= Represents a client connected to a Jupyter kernel. *** Initializing a connection =jupyter-initialize-connection= takes a client and a connection file as arguments and configures the client to communicate with the kernel whose connection information is contained in the [[http://jupyter-client.readthedocs.io/en/stable/kernels.html#connection-files][connection file]]. After initializing a connection, to begin communicating with a kernel call =jupyter-start-channels=. #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (let ((client (jupyter-kernel-client))) (jupyter-initialize-connection client "kernel1234.json") (jupyter-start-channels client)) #+END_SRC =jupyter-initialize-connection= is mainly useful when initializing a remote connection or connecting to an existing kernel. In order to start a new kernel on the =localhost= use =jupyter-start-new-kernel= #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (cl-destructuring-bind (manager client) (jupyter-start-new-kernel "python") BODY) #+END_SRC The above code starts a new =python= kernel and returns the =jupyter-kernel-manager= object used to manage the lifetime of the local kernel process and the =jupyter-kernel-client= connected to the manager's kernel. =jupyter-start-channels= will already have been called on the returned client when =jupyter-start-new-kernel= returns. To create multiple client's connected to the kernel of a =jupyter-kernel-manager= use =jupyter-make-client=. *** Starting/stopping channels To start a client's channels, use =jupyter-start-channels=. To stop a client's channels, =jupyter-stop-channels=. To determine if at least one channel is alive, =jupyter-channels-running-p=. You may access each individual channel by accessing its corresponding slot in a =jupyter-kernel-client=. To access the shell channel of a client #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (oref client shell-channel) #+END_SRC this will give you the =jupyter-channel= object of the shell channel. By accessing the channel slots of the client, individual channels may be started or stopped. *** Making requests to a kernel :PROPERTIES: :ID: 9D893914-E769-4AEF-8928-826B67038C2A :END: To free up Emacs from having to process messages sent to and received from a kernel, an Emacs subprocess is created for every client. This subprocess is responsible for polling the client's channels for messages and taking care of message signing, encoding, and decoding. The parent Emacs process is only responsible for supplying the message property lists (the representation used for Jupyter messages in Emacs) when sending a message and will receive the decoded message property list when receiving a message. The exception to this is the heartbeat channel which is implemented using timers in the parent Emacs process. Note, the message property lists should not be accessed directly. There are helper functions which should be used to access the message fields. See [[id:D09FDD89-43A9-41DA-A6E8-6D6C73336981][Message property lists]]. **** The lifetime of a request Sending a request to a kernel is done through one of the =jupyter-send-= methods of a =jupyter-kernel-client=. The arguments of the Jupyter message that each method represents are passed as keyword arguments, the keywords all have names according to the Jupyter messaging spec but with ~_~ replaced by ~-~. These methods construct the message property lists based on their arguments and pass the constructed message to the =jupyter-send= method of a client. The =jupyter-send= method then returns a new =jupyter-request= representing the sent message. #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (jupyter-send-execute-request client :code "1 + 2") ; Returns a `jupyter-request' #+END_SRC When a request is sent, the message ID of the request is added to the client's request table which maps message IDs to their corresponding =jupyter-request= objects. When a message is received from the kernel the request that generated it is found in the request table by using the =jupyter-message-parent-id= of the message. The slots of the =jupyter-request= are updated, any callbacks associated with the =jupyter-request= are run for the message, and the message is dispatched to the appropriate channel handler method of the client (one of the =jupyter-handle-= methods). A request is considered complete and is dropped from the request table once a =status: idle= message has been received for the request and it is not the most recently made request. **** =jupyter-generate-request= When one of the send methods are called, a =jupyter-request= object is instantiated by a call to =jupyter-generate-request= and the instantiated request is returned by the send method so that the caller can attach their callbacks as described above. Most likely, subclasses would want to attach extra information to a request. For example, an =org-mode= client that sends an =:execute-request= based on the contents of a source code block might want to keep track of the code block's buffer position so that it can insert the results at the right location when they are ready. This is the purpose of the =jupyter-generate-request= method. If a =jupyter-request= object is not general enough for some purpose, a subclass of =jupyter-kernel-client= can define a new request object, ensuring that the slots of a =jupyter-request= are included, and return the new type of request when =jupyter-generate-request= is called for a message. For example, below is the definition of the =jupyter-org-request= type for handling requests made in an =org-mode= buffer #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (cl-defstruct (jupyter-org-request (:include jupyter-request)) result-type block-params results silent id-cleared-p marker async) #+END_SRC And the context specializers used are #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (cl-defmethod jupyter-generate-request ((client jupyter-org-client) msg &context (major-mode org-mode)) ...) ; Return a `jupyter-org-request' #+END_SRC Notice that the =major-mode= context allows for =jupyter-org-request= objects to be used by =jupyter-generate-request= when the request is generated in =org-mode= buffers and to use the less specialized =jupyter-request= in other contexts. **** =jupyter-drop-request= When a request is completed, i.e. when the kernel sends an idle message for a request, you may want to do some final cleanup of the request. This is the purpose of the =jupyter-drop-request= method, it gets called when an idle message has been received for a kernel but only when the request is not the most recently sent request. *** Handling received messages The handler methods of a =jupyter-kernel-client= are called whenever the corresponding message is received from the kernel. They are intended to be overwritten by subclasses and most of the default implementations do nothing with the exception of the =:input-reply=, =:comm-open=, and =:comm-close= messages. The =:input-reply= handler asks for input from the user through the minibuffer and sends it to the kernel whereas the =:comm-open= / =:comm-close= default message handlers store the state of open =comms= in the client's =comms= slot. The handler methods have the following signature #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (cl-defmethod jupyter-handle- ((client jupyter-kernel-client) req arg1 arg2 ...) BODY) #+END_SRC =req= will be the =jupyter-request= object that generated the message. =arg1=, =arg2=, ... will be the unwrapped message contents passed to the handler, their number of arguments and their order are dependent on the message type. Alternatively you may work with the full message property list by accessing the =jupyter-request-last-message= slot of the =juptyer-request= object. See [[id:0E7CA280-8D14-4994-A3C7-C3B7204AC9D2][message callbacks]] for another way of handling received messages. **** A note on boolean arguments For message types that have boolean message fields, the symbol in the variable =jupyter--false= represents a false value so when checking the contents of these arguments it is best to explicitly check for =t=. #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (if (eq arg1 t) ...) #+END_SRC This is because there are some ambiguities between translating JSON values to their Emacs Lisp equivalents, since =nil= in Emacs is used both as signifying =false= or nothing whereas JSON has =null= for nothing. *** Client local variables Some variables which are used internally by =jupyter-kernel-client= have client local values. For example the variable =jupyter-include-other-output= tells a =jupyter-kernel-client= to pass IOPub messages originating from a different client to their corresponding handlers and defaults to =nil=, i.e. do not handle IOPub messages from other clients. To modify a client local variable you would use =jupyter-set= #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (jupyter-set client 'jupyter-include-other-output t) #+END_SRC and to retrieve the client local value, use =jupyter-get= #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (jupyter-get client 'jupyter-include-other-output) #+END_SRC These functions just set/get the value of a buffer local variable in a private buffer of the client. You may work with these buffer local variables directly by using the =jupyter-with-client-buffer= macro, just be sure to use =setq-local= if you are setting a new client local variable otherwise you may change the global value of the variable. Alternatively you can define a variable as automatically buffer local when set with =defvar-local=. #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (jupyter-with-client-buffer client (message "jupyter-include-other-output: %s" jupyter-include-other-output) (setq-local jupyter-include-other-output (not jupyter-include-other-output))) #+END_SRC **** Channel hooks The channel hook variables =jupyter-iopub-message-hook=, =jupyter-shell-message-hook=, and =jupyter-stdin-message-hook= are all client local variables and functions can be added to or removed from them using =jupyter-add-hook= and =jupyter-remove-hook=. See [[id:B29776AA-2ACF-4A4F-A4EA-3F194262465D][Channel hooks]]. ** =jupyter-kernel-manager= Manage the lifetime of a kernel on the =localhost=. *** Kernelspecs To get a list of kernelspecs on your system, as represented in Emacs, use =jupyter-available-kernelspecs= which processes the output of the shell command #+BEGIN_SRC sh jupyter kernelspec list #+END_SRC to construct the list of kernelspecs. This command also supports remote hosts. So if the =default-directory= points to a remote system, the returned kernelspecs are those on the remote system. To find all kernelspecs whose kernels match some regular expression use =jupyter-find-kernelspecs=. In the case you would like to get the kernelspec for a specific kernel, use =jupyter-get-kernelspec=. You may also use =jupyter-completing-read-kernelspec= in an =interactive= spec to ask the user to select a kernel from the list of available kernelspecs. *** Managing the lifetime of a kernel **** Starting a kernel As was mentioned previously, to start a new kernel on the =localhost= and create a connected client, use =jupyter-start-new-kernel= which takes a kernel name and returns a =jupyter-kernel-manager= which manages the lifetime of the kernel, and a connected =jupyter-kernel-client=. #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (cl-destructuring-bind (manager client) (jupyter-start-new-kernel "python") BODY) #+END_SRC Instead of supplying an exact kernel name, you may also supply the prefix of one. Then the first available kernel that has the same prefix will be started. See =jupyter-find-kernelspecs=. **** Stopping a kernel To shutdown a kernel, use =jupyter-shutdown-kernel=. To check if a kernel is alive, =jupyter-kernel-alive-p=. **** Interrupting a kernel To interrupt a kernel, use =jupyter-interrupt-kernel=. *** Making clients connected to a kernel Once you have a kernel manager you can make new =jupyter-kernel-client= (or a subclass of one) instances using =jupyter-make-client=. ** =jupyter-widget-client= :PROPERTIES: :ID: F8C2EB90-1DF3-4880-B684-31FE4784FAD1 :END: This class adds support for interacting with Jupyter widgets using an external browser for the widget display. In order for this to work properly you will need to have =simple-httpd= and the =websocket= packages installed, in addition, you will have to build the required javascript files as described in [[id:59559FA3-59AD-453F-93E7-113B43F85493][Widget support]]. The default implementation of =jupyter-widget-client= overrides the following methods of a =jupyter-kernel-client= #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (jupyter-handle-comm-close) (jupyter-handle-comm-open) (jupyter-handle-comm-msg) #+END_SRC Comm messages in Jupyter are a way to allow for custom messages between the kernel and a client. In the case of Jupyter widgets they are used to sync widget state between the kernel and client. It would be amazing to add custom Jupyter widgets to Emacs using the built =widget= library which would work for widgets such as text boxes, buttons, and other simple widgets, but there doesn't seem to be a way to support more complex widgets in Emacs that require embedded javascript. The default implementation of =jupyter-kernel-client= only keeps track of open comms through a client's =comms= slot. The =jupyter-widget-client= subclass adds the functionality to display and interact with widgets through an external browser. This works by relaying the comm messages between the browser and the kernel through a websocket. For this to work, you will also need to have the =simple-httpd= and =websocket= Emacs packages available. This feature is currently experimental, but seems to work well. I was able to interact with an [[https://github.com/jupyter-widgets/ipyleaflet][ipyleaflet]] map without any noticeable delay. ** TODO =jupyter-repl-client= ** TODO =jupyter-ioloop= ** TODO =jupyter-channel-ioloop= ** Callbacks and hooks :PROPERTIES: :ID: 0E7CA280-8D14-4994-A3C7-C3B7204AC9D2 :END: There are two main ways of evaluating code in response to a received message from the kernel. You can either subclass =jupyter-kernel-client= and override the handler methods or you can add message callbacks to the =jupyter-request= objects returned by the send methods. In both cases, when a message of a certain type is received for a request, the appropriate handler method or callback runs. If both methods are used in parallel, the message callbacks will run before the handler methods. You can also add a hook to one of the =jupyter--message-hook= client local hooks. Where == can be one of =iopub=, =shell=, or =stdin=. *** =jupyter-request= callbacks :PROPERTIES: :ID: BFCFCD3B-138A-4471-BEED-0EA3258493E5 :END: To add callbacks to a request, use =jupyter-add-callback=. =jupyter-add-callback= accepts a =jupyter-request= object as its first argument and alternating (message type, callback) pairs as the remaining arguments. The callbacks are registered with the request object to run whenever a message of the appropriate type is received. For example, to do something when a client receives a =:kernel-info-reply= you would do the following: #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (jupyter-add-callback (jupyter-send-kernel-info-request client) :kernel-info-reply (lambda (msg) (let ((info (jupyter-message-content msg))) BODY))) #+END_SRC To print out the results of an execute request: #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (jupyter-add-callback (jupyter-send-execute-request client :code "1 + 2") :execute-result (lambda (msg) (message (jupyter-message-data msg :text/plain)))) #+END_SRC To add multiple callbacks to a request: #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (jupyter-add-callback (jupyter-send-execute-request client :code "1 + 2") :execute-result (lambda (msg) (message (jupyter-message-data msg :text/plain))) :status (lambda (msg) (when (jupyter-message-status-idle-p msg) (message "DONE!")))) #+END_SRC There is also the possibility of running the same handler for different message types: #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (jupyter-add-callback (jupyter-send-execute-request client :code "1 + 2") '(:status :execute-result :execute-reply) (lambda (msg) (pcase (jupyter-message-type msg) (:status ...) (:execute-reply ...) (:execute-result ...)))) #+END_SRC *** Channel hooks :PROPERTIES: :ID: B29776AA-2ACF-4A4F-A4EA-3F194262465D :END: Hook variables are available for each channel: =jupyter-iopub-message-hook=, =jupyter-stdin-message-hook=, and =jupyter-shell-message-hook=. Unless you want to run a channel hook for every client, use =jupyter-add-hook= to add a function to one of the channel hooks. =jupyter-add-hook= only adds to the client local value of the hook variables. #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (jupyter-add-hook client 'jupyter-iopub-message-hook (lambda (msg) (when (jupyter-message-status-idle-p msg) (message "Kernel idle.")))) #+END_SRC To remove a client local hook, use =jupyter-remove-hook=. Channel hooks also provide a way of suppressing the handler methods. If any of the channel hooks return a non-nil value, the handler method for that message will be suppressed. *** =jupyter-inhibit-handlers= In addition to suppressing handler methods using channel hooks, to prevent a client from running its handler methods for a particular request you can =let= bind =jupyter-inhibit-handlers= to an appropriate value before the request is made. For example, to prevent a client from running its stream handler for a request you would do the following: #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (let ((jupyter-inhibit-handlers '(:stream))) (jupyter-send-execute-request client :code "print(\"foo\")\n1 + 2")) #+END_SRC =jupyter-inhibit-handlers= can be either a list of message types or =t=, the latter meaning inhibit handlers for all message types. Alternatively you can set the =jupyter-request-inhibited-handlers= slot of a =jupyter-request= object. This slot can take the same values as =jupyter-inhibit-handlers=. ** Waiting for messages All message passing between the kernel and Emacs happens asynchronously. So if a code path in Emacs Lisp is dependent on some message already having been received, e.g. an idle message, there needs to be primitives that will block so there can be can guarantee that certain messages have been received. The following functions all wait for different conditions to be met on the received messages of a request and return the message that caused the function to stop waiting or =nil= if no message was received within a timeout period. The default timeout is =jupyter-default-timeout= seconds. For example, to wait until an idle message has been received for a request: #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (let ((timeout 4)) (jupyter-wait-until-idle (jupyter-send-execute-request client :code "import time\ntime.sleep(3)") timeout)) #+END_SRC To wait until a message of a specific type is received for a request: #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (jupyter-wait-until-received :execute-reply (jupyter-send-execute-request client :code "[i*10 for i in range(100000)]")) #+END_SRC The most general form of the blocking functions is =jupyter-wait-until= which takes a message type and a predicate function of a single argument. Whenever a message is received that matches the message type, the message is passed to the function to determine if =jupyter-wait-until= should return from waiting. #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (defun stream-prints-50-p (msg) (let ((text (jupyter-message-get msg :text))) (cl-loop for line in (split-string text "\n") thereis (equal line "50")))) (let ((timeout 2)) (jupyter-wait-until (jupyter-send-execute-request client :code "[print(i) for i in range(100)]") :stream #'stream-prints-50-p timeout)) #+END_SRC The above code runs =stream-prints-50-p= for every =stream= message received from a kernel (here assumed to be a python kernel) for an execute request that prints the numbers 0 to 99 and waits until the kernel has printed the number 50 before returning from the =jupyter-wait-until= call. If the number 50 is not printed before the two second timeout, =jupyter-wait-until= returns =nil=. Otherwise it returns the stream message whose content contains the number 50. ** Message property lists :PROPERTIES: :ID: D09FDD89-43A9-41DA-A6E8-6D6C73336981 :END: There is really no need to construct or access message property lists directly. The =jupyter-send-= client methods already handle creating them by calling the =jupyter-message-= family of functions. Similarly, when a message is received from a kernel the message properties are unwrapped and passed as arguments to the =jupyter-handle-= client methods. If required, the message property list is available in the =jupyter-request-last-message= slot of the =jupyter-request= passed to the =jupyter-handle-= client methods. On the other hand, message callbacks pass the message property list directly to the callback. In this case, the following functions can be used to access the fields of the property list: #+BEGIN_SRC elisp ;; Get the `:content' propery of MSG (jupyter-message-content msg) ;; Get the message type (one of the keys in `jupyter-message-types') (jupyter-message-type msg) ;; Get the value of KEY in the MSG contents (jupyter-message-get msg key) ;; Get the value of the MIMETYPE in MSG's :data property ;; MIMETYPE should be one of `:image/png', `:text/plain', ... (jupyter-message-data msg mimetype) #+END_SRC Note that access of the message property lists should only occur through the =jupyter-message-*= functions since the main parts of a message such as the content and header are lazily decoded. *** Convenience macros =jupyter-with-message-content= gives a way to extract and bind the keys of a =jupyter-message-content= easily #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (jupyter-with-message-content msg (status ename) ...) ; status and ename keys of (jupyter-message-content msg) are bound #+END_SRC There is also =jupyter-with-message-data= which extracts and binds the mimetypes of =jupyter-message-data= #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (jupyter-with-message-data msg ((res text/plain)) ...) ; res is bound to (jupyter-message-data msg :text/plain) #+END_SRC ** Modify behavior depending on kernel language Since Jupyter supports many different programming language kernels, each with varying degrees of support in Emacs there needs to be a general way of modifying the behavior of the client to take this into account. This is achieved using the =&context= specializer of =cl-defmethod=. There are currently two specializers in use, =jupyter-lang= and =jupyter-repl-mode=. =jupyter-lang= is a context specializer that matches when the kernel language of the =jupyter-current-client= is equal to the specializer's argument. For example, below is the function that gets called in the REPL buffer when the kernel language is =julia= for indenting the current line: #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (cl-defmethod jupyter-indent-line (&context (jupyter-lang julia)) (call-interactively #'julia-latexsub-or-indent)) #+END_SRC There are many other entry points where methods may be overridden in such a way. Below is the full list of methods that can be overridden in this way | Method | Purpose | |--------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------| | =jupyter-insert= | Insert Jupyter results into the current buffer | | =jupyter-code-context= | Return the code and position for inspect and complete requests | | =jupyter-indent-line= | Indent the current cell in the REPL buffer | | =jupyter-completion-prefix= | Return the completion prefix for the current completion context | | =jupyter-completion-post-completion= | Evaluate code when a completion candidate has been selected | | =jupyter-repl-after-init= | Evaluate code after a REPL buffer has been initialized | | =jupyter-repl-after-change= | Called when input cell code changes | | =jupyter-markdown-follow-link= | Follow a markdown link at point | | =jupyter-org-result= | Modify the result of a Jupyter code block before display in =org-mode= | In addition to the =jupyter-lang= context, there is also the =jupyter-repl-mode= context which is identical to the =derived-mode= context but does its check against =jupyter-repl-lang-mode= if the =jupyter-current-client= is a =jupyter-repl-client=. This is useful to modify behavior depending on the =major-mode= that is used for a particular language. For example for =javascript= kernels, it used to setup code highlighting when =js2-mode= is used as the REPL languages =major-mode= since =js2-mode= does not use =font-lock=. ** =org-mode= *** =jupyter-org-client= A =jupyter-org-client= is a subclass of =jupyter-kernel-client= meant to display the results of a Jupyter code block in an =org-mode= buffer. Since the Jupyter spec provides rich output, a code block does not know before obtaining the results from the kernel what type of results to expect. Typically this is handled in the =org-mode= document by the user specifying the kind of results it expects in header arguments. The Jupyter messaging spec provides enough information for the results of an execution so that the user shouldn't have to specify any header arguments. A =jupyter-org-client= uses this information to dynamically update the results of a source block based on the mime type of the Jupyter result. If the kernel returns results that can be formatted as LaTeX, the results are wrapped in a LaTeX code block. If the result is an image, a file link is inserted. Other supported mimetypes are handled in a similar way. **** =jupyter-org-result= The main entry point for extending how results are inserted into the =org-mode= buffer is the method help:jupyter-org-result, which dispatches on the MIME type of a result returned from a kernel. The MIME type priority is given in =jupyter-org-mime-types=. =jupyter-org-result= can return either an =org-element= object or a string. In the former case, the =org-element= is transformed into its string representation before insertion into the buffer. In the later case, the string is inserted into the =org-mode= buffer as is, without any further processing. There are helper functions for generating =org-element= objects which have names like =jupyter-org-scalar=, =jupyter-org-export-block=, =jupyter-org-file-link=, etc. ***** Extending =jupyter-org-result= For a kernel language to extend the behavior of how results are inserted, the =jupyter-lang= method specializer can be used. For example, below is how =:text/plain= results are modified for Python code blocks #+BEGIN_SRC elisp (cl-defmethod jupyter-org-result ((_mime (eql :text/plain)) &context (jupyter-lang python) &rest _) (let ((result (cl-call-next-method))) (cond ((stringp result) (org-babel-python-table-or-string result)) (t result)))) #+END_SRC =cl-call-next-method= calls down to a less specialized method of =jupyter-org-result= and if the returned result is still expected to be plain text, calls =org-babel-python-table-org-string= to convert any results that look like Python arrays into =org-mode= tables before returning its result.