Some magic commands not working in Python Interactive window

[Gorbagzog]

Environment data

VS Code version: 1.36.1
Extension version (available under the Extensions sidebar): 2019.8.29288
OS and version: MAC 10.14.4
Python version: 3.7.1

Expected behavior

Inside the Python interactive window, I want to use magic commands like %magic or the question mark like foo?

Actual behavior

Some magic commands are working (like %history or %pylab), but other do not work, like %magic or %pinfo which is equivalent to the question mark foo?

I understand this might be related to this closed issues: microsoft/vscode-python#4170 microsoft/vscode-python#5565
However the behaviour of some magic functions are not the same inside the Python interactive window compared to an ipython terminal.

I do not know if this issue is from my side, or if it is by design in the Python interactive window, or if it will be solved in a future release.

[rchiodo]

Not sure why they don't work. Jupyter is giving us nothing back as results for %pinfo or %magic.

These may be client side only commands and we'd have to implement them ourselves.

%pinfo should be easy to workaround though as we have a list of variables at the top of the window.

[dlindelof]

I'm using this extension and can confirm that iPython's dynamic object information feature (https://ipython.org/ipython-doc/3/interactive/reference.html#dynamic-object-information) doesn't work. For example, len? doesn't show anything:

But in plain iPython the function's docstring is shown:

Here's my extension information:

Name: Python
Id: ms-python.python
Description: Linting, Debugging (multi-threaded, remote), Intellisense, code formatting, refactoring, unit tests, snippets, and more.
Version: 2019.10.33744-dev
Publisher: Microsoft
VS Marketplace Link: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-python.python

[ARF1]

Solution / workaround in https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-python/issues/7289#issuecomment-529973067

[Axel-Shark]

Solution / workaround in #7289 (comment)

Just tested. Not a solution.

[ARF1]

@SJWackness Thanks for letting me know.

#3119 probably should not have been marked as a duplicate of this issue...

[rchiodo]

This might fix some of the problem. However it doesn't fix it for every command:

import IPython.core
IPython.core.page = print

We need to investigate whether or not this should be part of our default set of code we run on startup.

[aragong]

Same problem with %time and %%time.

[rchiodo]

@aragong What results do you get for %time and %%time? They seem to work for me:

[aragong]

If I use %%time and execute the code using ctrl+enter. UsageError: Line magic function %%time not found.

If I use %%time ans execute the code selecting the lines and pressing shift+enter. Wall time: 1.86 s

[rchiodo]

Can you share your code? This sounds like a different issue. At least CTRL+ENTER and SHIFT+ENTER are supposed to do the exact same thing, but one advances and the other doesn't. For me they both work, but maybe it has something to do with how you're executing.

I'm using code like so:

#%% 
%%time
print('bar')

It also works in a notebook

[aragong]

Please try
#%%

%%time
print('bar')

If you have an empty line does not work for me but your previous code runs perfectly! I'm using a .py file working on Interactive python from miniconda with cells (#%%) I do not know if that helps!

[aragong]

[rchiodo]

Wow, weird. Sorry but that works for me just fine. Perhaps there's extra chars on that line? And CTRL+ENTER doesn't work, but SHIFT+ENTER does? What do you have mapped to CTRL+ENTER? Maybe there is some extra command running too?

[aragong]

How can I restore default keyboard shortcuts? Maybe the problem is that??

[rchiodo]

Use the open keyboard shortcuts (JSON) command. It should open the JSON file that has your remappings. If you delete everything in there it will reset you back to default.

[aragong]

It is empty! I do not know what is happening!

Ok I've just done this:
A) run each cell with right click --> run cell in Python interactive window. responses [1],[2],[3]
B) run each cell selecting the lines and shift+enter. responses [4],[5],[6]

I've no idea what is wrong!!

[rchiodo]

This one actually fails for me:

import time
%%time
print('bar')

But it also fails on Jupyter:

So maybe it has something to do with jupyter getting confused over what 'time' actually means?

[aragong]

clicking on Run Cell button:

maybe it is my python environment?

[rchiodo]

Not sure. Although I think we should move to a new issue (as your problem doesn't seem related to the one this issue is about). I'll create one:
https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-python/issues/8923

[ARF1]

@rchiodo This comment really belongs to #3119 which unfortunately has been erroneously marked as duplicate of this issue and locked for comments.

The workaround for the problem that I had found for this issue now no longer works:

There is now absolutely no way left to work with IPython commands from vscode.

Would it be possible to reverse whatever "broke" the workaround until this issue will be solved more permanently?

[rchiodo]

Would it be possible to reverse whatever "broke" the workaround until this issue will be solved more permanently?

Sure but we'd have to know what caused it. I would hazard a guess that jupyter 'fixed' something and now we're not getting the output we expect.

[rchiodo]

Looking through the IPython code, it looks like there's another message that Jupyter is sending us for some of these things.

We need to listen for IExecuteReplyMsg responses. One of these will have the pager results:
https://github.com/jupyterlab/jupyterlab/blob/9c25950fca4c443b709c572bf0f2e9fc8404251c/packages/services/src/kernel/messages.ts#L1050

Not sure how we interpret the page of data, but this would at least get the prun magic to work I believe.

Jupyter opens page results in a separate tab at the bottom.

[rchiodo]

Moving back to triage. This seems like a hole in our implementation that we should fill in sooner rather than later.

[aragong]

In that way to conclude that is nothing to do with my environment (in conda and in the vscode), I will try:
1- do the same with a new empty python3 environment.
2- How can I restore vscode to defaults settings (without delete extensions? is it possible?)

[rchiodo]

@aragong can you reply in issue #2603 instead for your problem? Your %%time issue is not related to the root cause of the other magics failing.

[IanMatthewHuff]

Validated (mostly). I checked the ones listed in this thread and a sampling of other magics. These all worked:
len?
%time print('bar')
%%time
%prun print('Hello')
%alias
%conda list
%%HTML
%page
%pdoc

I did hit one that worked on jupyter and not here:
%lsmagic

But I think we can look for a customer upvote or request for that.

[Alonoparag]

%lsmagic doesn't work for me, using 1.51.4 OSS version on Manjaro Gnome 20