Web Version of Qt Console

[afshin]

In addition to the notebook interface, we need to implement a web-based version of the console interface. Here are some of the tasks that will get us there:

• Create a ConsolePanel as a container that holds a ConsoleWidget, similar to the way the notebook works.
• Create a ConsoleModel that is similar to a NotebookModel but does not have a notion of arbitrary cell insertion.
• The first child of the ConsoleWidget needs to be a RawCellWidget to hold a banner and the second needs to be a CodeCellWidget to hold the prompt.
• The ConsoleWidget needs a set of keyboard bindings to emulate the Qt Console application.
• The execution of the code cell needs to be separated from the notebook because it is common functionality.
• After every prompt execution, a new CodeCell needs to be generated to become the new prompt.
• The UI needs to be styled to look like the Qt Console application.
• The history functionality of the Qt Console needs to be implemented (i.e. navigating through past commands via arrow keys).
• The contextual tooltip feature of the Qt Console needs to be implemented.
• The pager functionality of leaving the prompt and residing within a different interactive context (i.e., entering the interactive help) needs to be implemented.
• The completion functionality (i.e., tab completion) of the Qt Console needs to be implemented. This should be done in a way that allows the notebook, or other widgets potentially, to use it as well.

cc @blink1073 @jasongrout

[ellisonbg]

Yep, and a lot of this refactoring will also help us in hooking up kernels
to standalone text editors.

On Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 1:17 PM, A. Darian notifications@github.com wrote:

In addition to the notebook interface, we need to implement a web-based
version of the console interface. Here are some of the tasks that will get
us there:

• Create a ConsolePanel as a container that holds a ConsoleWidget,
  similar to the way the notebook works.
• The first child of the ConsoleWidget needs to be a CodeCell
• The ConsoleWidget needs a set of keyboard bindings to emulate the Qt
  Console application.
• The execution of the code cell needs to be separated from the
  notebook because it is common functionality.

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#170

Brian E. Granger
Associate Professor of Physics and Data Science
Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo
@ellisonbg on Twitter and GitHub
bgranger@calpoly.edu and ellisonbg@gmail.com

[blink1073]

@afshin,

Up/down at the edge of a codemirror: https://github.com/jupyter/notebook/blob/master/notebook/static/notebook/js/cell.js#L234

[blink1073]

It looks like the current notebook is still using the deprecated payload shell response for the pager:

https://github.com/jupyter/notebook/blob/master/notebook/static/notebook/js/codecell.js#L347

http://jupyter-client.readthedocs.org/en/latest/messaging.html#execution-results

cc @minrk

[blink1073]

@afshin,

Completion: https://github.com/jupyter/notebook/blob/41d6da235cbf3bcf6d7f818e11a066e0fd12ff8b/notebook/static/notebook/js/completer.js#L173
Tooltip for inspection: https://github.com/jupyter/notebook/blob/41d6da235cbf3bcf6d7f818e11a066e0fd12ff8b/notebook/static/notebook/js/tooltip.js#L189

[blink1073]

@minrk, ah, I see now "Payloads are considered deprecated, though their replacement is not yet implemented."

This statement is confusing, I would say it isn't deprecated until there is actually a preferred replacement.

[blink1073]

@afshin, it looks like all of these will be relevant to you: http://jupyter-client.readthedocs.org/en/latest/messaging.html#payloads-deprecated

[afshin]

@blink1073 you're a monster. Thank you!

[minrk]

@blink1073 payloads are something that we don't like, and know that we will remove/replace when we get the chance. Since we know that, we want to avoid things like proposing new payloads, etc., but they still exist because we haven't come up with a replacement for the few things they are used for. If you have a better way to communicate "avoid using these if you can, but that's not always possible," A PR to the doc would be welcome.

[afshin]

@minrk in order to cover functionality that the Qt Console currently offers, e.g., using the interactive help system, we'll need to use payloads. Do you have any input on how we should approach this?

cc: @blink1073 @sccolbert

[jasongrout]

Does the qtconsole use payloads to implement the interactive help? It looks to me like help() just uses raw_input() to do help. You can see that if you do help() in the Jupyter notebook. It looks like you just have to implement the stdin connection: http://jupyter-client.readthedocs.org/en/latest/messaging.html#messages-on-the-stdin-router-dealer-sockets

[minrk]

@jasongrout pager output is a payload. @afshin yes, I think the frontend should support payloads. Sorry for the confusion. The comment in the docs mainly pertains to kernels, where we would like to avoid doing new things with payloads until we can come up with their replacement, express a preference to do things without payloads where there's an option.

[afshin]

@minrk Thanks for the clarification!

[jasongrout]

Ah, thanks for the clarification, @minrk.

[afshin]

FYI, this is the current state of affairs (which now includes history):

[afshin]

[Carreau]

Nitpick from screenshots, Out[ don't have space before the square bracket to align.

[afshin]

@Carreau, thanks for the input. @blink1073 just created this issue for it: #221

[blink1073]

The output input, as it were.

[afshin]

Current state of affairs:

[jan-matthis]

Not sure if this is the right place to throw this in: It would be very handy to have the web console closely integrated with the notebook, e.g. through magic commands. Something like %qtweb could spawn a console connected to the current kernel in a new tab or in an overlay. %qtdebug might spawn a web console with %debug executed inside, so that ipdb can be used with autocompletion and history.

[blink1073]

Hi @jan-matthis, thank you, those are both excellent suggestions. We've moved development over to https://github.com/jupyter/jupyterlab. @afshin, do you want to migrate the top level comment over there and link to this issue?

[afshin]

@blink1073 @jan-matthis Sure, will do. Great suggestions.

[blink1073]

Migrated to jupyterlab/jupyterlab#76