cpyvke

Curses PYthon Variable and Kernel Explorer

cpyvke is a variable explorer and a kernel manager written in Python 3 ncurses for iPython kernels (Python 2.x or 3.x). cpyvke supports inspection of numpy ndarray among others types, and provides a set of tools to visualize and plot data.

Be aware that cpyvke is still in development : A lot of bugs are definitely there !

Note that this version only works with Python 3.x. The Python 2.7 version is no longer maintened !

cpyvke : the Curses interface

Variable explorer and kernel manager.

• Explore variables in IPython kernels
• Manage IPython kernels

kd5 : the daemon to communicate with IPython kernels

Communication with ipython kernels.

• Stream variable list each time a change occurs in the kernel
• Listen to request from the client

Requirement

• 256 colors terminal is preferred, but cpyvke also works with 8 colors terminals.
• python3-tk : install it with your package manager
• Tested with python 3.5, 3.6 and 3.7

Dependencies

• Ipython >= 5.1 (tested with 5.1.0 -- 7.2.0 -- 7.8.0)
• ipykernel (tested with 4.6.1 -- 5.0.1 -- 5.1.3)
• jupyter_client >= 4.4 (tested with 4.4.0 -- 5.2.4 -- 5.3.4)
• psutil (tested with 3.4.2)
• numpy (tested with 1.13.0)
• matplotlib (tested with 1.5.1)

Installation

git clone https://github.com/ipselium/cpyvke.git python3 setup.py install

or

pip install cpyvke

Quick Start

To start working, just launch cpyvke in a console. It will create a new kernel, start the daemon and launch the client :

cpyvke

You can also launch cpyvke-launch-ipython to open the current kernel :

cpyvke-launch-ipython

You can now work in this Ipython console and cpyvke will display all changes in the associated kernel :

In [1] : run my_program.py

Tips

You can also use : https://github.com/ipselium/vim-cpyvke

vim-cpyvke provides tools to evaluate blocks of code or full scripts directly from vim. The duo cpyvke/vim-cpyvke paired with a vim plugin such as python-mode (www.github.com/klen/python-mode) can provide a complete development environment for Python in console.

Manuals

kd5 : The Daemon

Usage: kd5 {start|stop|restart|list} [INTEGER]

• start : start daemon. If no [INTEGER] is provided, a new ipython kernel is created. [INTEGER] is the id of the connection file.
• stop : stop daemon
• restart : restart daemon
• list : list available ipython kernels

cpyvke : The client

Usage: cpyvke [-h] [-L] [-D] [integer]

• positional arguments:

  • [integer] : Start up with existing kernel. INTEGER is the id of the connection file.

• optional arguments:

  • [-h], [--help] : show this help message and exit
  • [-D], [--debug] : Debug mode
  • [-L], [--list] : List all kernels

• bindings:

  • h : help
  • ENTER : Validate/Item menu
  • q|ESC : Previous menu/quit'
  • s : sort by name/type
  • l : limit display to all variable matching the given keyword
  • u : undo limit
  • k : kernel manager
  • / : Search for variable
  • q : previous menu -- quit
  • r : Refresh explorer
  • c-r : Restart Daemon
  • R : Restart connection to daemon
  • D : Disconnect from daemon
  • C : Connect to daemon
  • ↓ : Next line
  • ↑ : Previous line
  • →|↡ Next page
  • ←|↟ Previous page

Setup workspace

• You can directly launch cpyvke. It will create a new kernel, start the daemon and launch the client
• cpyvke-launch-ipython automatically launch the current ipython console
• You can also manually open an existing ipython instance like this : ipython console --existing kernel-xxxxx.json where xxxxx is the id of the kernel

Note

If you just want to test cpyvke without installing. In cpyvke/ directory :

• launch kd5 first : python3 -m cpyvke.kd5 start
• then launch cpyvke : python3 -m cpyvke.cpyvke
• and launch ipython in another console : python3 -m cpyvke.launch

Configuration

A configuration file cpyvke.conf is created in $HOME/.cpyvke/ at first startup. Appearance of the client can be customize (colors, font).

Colors

The available colors are...

• black
• red
• green
• yellow
• blue
• magenta
• cyan
• white

Fonts

cpyvke can also display powerline fonts. You can find them here : https://github.com/powerline/fonts.

Add the following section in $HOME/.cpyvke/cpyvke.conf:

[font]

powerline-font = True

Python kernel version

The cpyvke/kd5 duo handles python 2.x or 3.x kernel equally. To setup the Python kernel you'll want to use :

[kernel version]

version = 3

The version can be 2 or 3 for python 2.x kernel or 3.x kernel, respectively.

Known Bugs

cpyvke is still in developpement and may present unexpected behavior !