Output truncated with no way to view all output in the notebook itself

[KRiedmiller]

Issue Type: Bug

Since the 1.59 update the output of cells in an interactive python window is truncated if it is longer than 30 lines. The setting 'jupyter.textOutputLimit' is not respected, and I couldn't find another way to change this behaviour.
This is extremly annoying as the 'show more' option only brings up the output unformatted, which isn't usable for long outputs.
I think previously this was solved with a scroll bar which worked perfectly.

Extension version: 2021.8.1105858891
VS Code version: Code 1.59.0 (379476f0e13988d90fab105c5c19e7abc8b1dea8, 2021-08-04T23:13:20.182Z)
OS version: Linux x64 5.4.0-80-generic
Restricted Mode: No
Remote OS version: Linux x64 5.11.22-100.fc32.x86_64
Remote OS version: Linux x64 5.11.22-100.fc32.x86_64

A/B Experiments

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[greazer]

@KRiedmiller thanks for the feedback! While it's being discussed on our end, in the meantime you can work around this a bit by adjusting this setting:

"notebook.output.textLineLimit": 30

Setting to 0 will cause the truncation to be disabled all together.

Also the raw json format of data that is shown in a separate file when clicking on the "show more" link will be fixed in the next release of VS Code.

We understand that your desire is to support just showing more in the same cell output.

[maflAT]

The same bug also applies to standard notebooks, not only the interactive window.

[turbonate]

Just to add a bit here, this truncation causes issues when using help(object) as the help file for almost every major python library is more than 30 lines. It makes the kernel unusable for debugging without the workarounds mentioned in this thread.

Specific commonly used object examples: help(pd.DataFrame) help(sm.OLS)

Thanks!

[greazer]

After some internal discussion here, we came to a general agreement that a good thing to try here is to create a custom renderer for stdout that supports viewing output within a scrollable region.

• Jupyter notebook supports scrollable output by default
• Jupyter Lab supports non-scrollable output by default (similar to VS Code, without the link)
• Shift+O should be hooked up to toggle between the two views
• Jupyter notebook and lab have generous margins on the left and right which can be used as a place to put the mouse to avoid scrolling conflicts.

Pros

• Output from help commands like help(pd.DataFrame) will be usable from within the notebook and not require being opened in a separate file
• Users could switch between the scrollable renderer and the non-scrollable to their desire.

Cons

• Likely that the scrollable output would need to load the entire output, which could be very large and eat up memory.
• It's not clear that this rendering should be default -- probably not. Based on some research I did, many more people were asking for the ability to see the entirety of an output within the notebook (See Expansion of cell output windows #1673) than the opposite which is the topic of this issue.

Note that the scenario surrounding using the help() mechanism in Python could potentially be alleviated with a separate help window. This has already been entered as an enhancement (just need to find it).

[greazer]

Highly related issue: #1543. Closing that one as the resolution for this one should address it.

[fschiffers]

I just wanted to add that setting textLineLimit to as
"notebook.output.textLineLimit": 0
doesn't have the expected effect.

I also tried really high numbers (e.g. 5000), but there still seems to be an internal limit.

I'm using the pytorch lightning advancer profile which spits out a lot of information and I cannot see the information I'd like to see since it truncates at some point.

[amunger]

We have added an experimental setting to enable scrolling on notebook outputs. Turn it on with
"notebook.experimental.outputScrolling": true

[andreamah]

I can't find the setting notebook.experimental.outputScrolling.

Was the new setting registered correctly?

[amunger]

It's just an experiment at this point, so it won't appear in the settings UI, it must be manually set in the json.

[underwoodnoble]

It doesn't work.

[gjsjohnmurray]

@underwoodnoble the "Unknown Configuration Setting" message is just a warning. You can still save it. Does it have the desired effect? If not I suggest you try again after a VS Code reload/restart.

[OyLingji]

The scrollbar seems not work for the error messages. (v2023.2.1000481019)