I have been trying to use the :session feature of babel for python code
blocks. I have noticed a few things that might be areas for
improvement. Some issues are related to what I think might be a need for
sanitizing the code blocks and the output.
I am using (insert (org-version)) 7.9.3a
I am using python-mode 5.2 (more modern versions do not work with
:session for me)
The first small detail is illustrated here:
#+BEGIN_SRC python :session
a = 5
b = 6
print a + b
#+END_SRC
#+RESULTS:
:
: >>> >>> >>> 11
In the output, there are three sets of >>>, due to the two empty
lines. Compare this to
#+BEGIN_SRC python :session
a = 5
b = 6
print a + b
#+END_SRC
#+RESULTS:
:
: >>> 11
I think it would be nice to sanitize the python code block sent to the
interpreter to eliminate the empty lines, and avoid the multiple >>> in
output. It would also be nice to have an option to not print those at
all.
The second issue is related. The following code does not work for me in
:session, but it works fine as a standalone block. The issue is related
to the presence of an empty line in the function definition. I like
whitespace like this in functions sometimes for readability.
#+BEGIN_SRC python :session
def func(x):
'doc string'
return x**2
print func(2)
#+END_SRC
#+RESULTS:
:
: ... >>> File "<stdin>", line 1
: return x**2
: ^
: IndentationError: unexpected indent
: >>> None
Removing the blank line works fine, but still has some non-pretty
output.
#+BEGIN_SRC python :session
def func(x):
'doc string'
return x**2
print func(2)
#+END_SRC
#+RESULTS:
:
: ... ... >>> 4
One of the ellipsis is due to the doc string.
#+BEGIN_SRC python :session
def func(x):
return x**2
print func(2)
#+END_SRC
#+RESULTS:
:
: ... >>> 4
Interestingly, this did not work, because there is no empty line after
the function definition. So, sanitizing could be tricky.
#+BEGIN_SRC python :session
def func(x):
'doc string'
return x**2
print func(2)
#+END_SRC
#+RESULTS:
:
: ... ... File "<stdin>", line 4
: print func(2)
: ^
: SyntaxError: invalid syntax
I think if there was a way to strip all the empty lines from the input,
it would go a long way to making the output look like what I think most
people would expect and want.
Anyway, those are the examples I wanted to highlight in this
post.
1. Do you see similar behavior, or is this a feature of my setup?
2. Is there any interest in sanitizing the input and output of a
python :session to get prettier output? if so, Any hints on where to start with that?
Thanks,