Jupyter Lab launcher? Live coding mode? iPython interpreter?

[villares]

Thonny IDE + py5 + thonny-py5mode plug-in provides a stable/standard Python env with py5 I can count on. This is a bit of an unstructured dump of things that I sometimes think, things I would like to have, and maybe the plug-in could help me with them.

• I'd like to use Jupyter notebooks more in my classes. Sometimes I can open Thonny's "System Shell" and fire jupyter lab but I have to remember to navigate to a folder with the notebooks and other resources beforehand. One of the places where I teach disables access to the command line interface terminal/shell, but also I find it cumbersome to have students installing the py5 kernels launching the ipynb notebook interface. I wish Thonny could launch Jupyter Lab for me, maybe asking which folder it should look at...

• I'd like to use the Live Coding feature more. It also works from Thonny's "System Shell" on Linux. I have to test it on Windows. Maybe I did test it and it works fine, but I haven't used it in class yet, so I don't remember if it works. I wish I could just activate it from the py5 menu. What would it take to achieve this?

• I'd like to have non-blocking sketches on Thonny running on Macs. And I wonder if we could make Thonny use an ipython interpreter (I tried a little bit and failed, but I really don't understand much about this stuff). The point is I enjoy using non-blocking sketches because I can inspect stuff on the the interactive console and I wish everyone could do it too.

[hx2A]

• I wish Thonny could launch Jupyter Lab for me, maybe asking which folder it should look at...

That should be possible to do. Thonny can launch Jupyter with a system command so it is running in a separate process. I believe there is a command line argument (--app-dir) that can specify the start directory for notebooks.

• I wish I could just activate it from the py5 menu. What would it take to achieve this?

Also should be reasonable to implement, it is another system command. Wait - live coding does not yet support imported mode. If you are OK with module mode, this would work. You can use Thonny as the code editor and the live coding feature will watch the file timestamps and will detect when you save.

• I'd like to have non-blocking sketches on Thonny running on Macs. And I wonder if we could make Thonny use an ipython interpreter (I tried a little bit and failed, but I really don't understand much about this stuff). The point is I enjoy using non-blocking sketches because I can inspect stuff on the the interactive console and I wish everyone could do it too.

I'd really like that also. You can do this on Macs only when you use Jupyter. Macos sketches cannot be non blocking outside of Jupyter.

[villares]

If you are OK with module mode, this would work. You can use Thonny as the code editor and the live coding feature will watch the file timestamps and will detect when you save.

Yeah, I know it would be a module mode only thing for now, I think it would be cool!

[hx2A]

OK, then this is achievable! And once that's done, I'll have an incentive to get live coding working for imported mode. It should be possible to do that.