parser.setReadtable is not a function (Jupyter)

[tbenst]

I'm attempting to add webppl to a (python) Jupyter notebook using an admittedly hacky method.

Unfortunately I get the following error from webppl: TypeError: parser.setReadtable is not a function. Any thoughts or an alternate suggested method? Thanks!

[longouyang]

I suspect this is a webppl issue, not webppl-editor; parser.setReadtable is a function inside sweet.js, which is a library that webppl uses.

I'm a little wary of this approach to embedding webppl inside Jupyter; it seems like it'd be much cleaner to write a proper Jupyter kernel (though I know that would be more effort)

[tbenst]

Just took a stab at this. Tried this node.js kernel in docker using this Dockerfile but was stymied by an error running node install. Will try again next week

[tbenst]

Okay, some progress: can now install webppl and import in jupyter (docker image) Haven't been able to run any webppl code yet (below). Apologies if this is in the documentation somewhere and i missed it

[longouyang]

webppl.prepare takes two mandatory arguments, the compiled code and a continuation, and an optional objects argument:

webppl.prepare(
  compiled, // code
  function(s,x) { }, // continuation that does something with the return val x
  {initialStore: {observedData: [1,2,3]}}) // options; here, I'm setting the initial contents of globalStore

[longouyang]

(Oh, and btw, this compile/prepare/run stuff isn't documented anywhere yet as far as I know)

[tbenst]

Thanks!

Turns out that node.js kernel does not supply cell magics for use with python or another kernel. Seems that Beaker is a better option than jupyter here.

I created a fork of beaker notebook and added webppl as a language: https://github.com/tbenst/beaker-notebook. This is already improved over the previous jupyter example as the compile command happens on the node.js backend.

The main limitation is I've yet to implement auto-translation. Any thoughts on how i might include the beaker object in webppl?

Another thought is to add globalStore to the beaker object, and to always initialize webppl with initialStore = beaker.globalStore, and to pass globalStore back after execution & update beaker.globalStore.

[longouyang]

Nice!

I'm a little unclear on what the interface for the beaker object is. Where is a beaker global variable available -- inside the node.js backend? And what methods do you call on it to make the auto-translation happen?

[tbenst]

The beaker object is available in most languages: https://github.com/twosigma/beaker-notebook/wiki/Auto-Translation. The object is global across a notebook. The key feature is you can get and set variables from cells with different languages

[longouyang]

In this case, I think that your backend code should call prepare with a continuation that uses beaker to do the auto translation on the return value of the webppl program.

[tbenst]

cool, got it working:

should now be usable with this functionality. docker run -it -p 8800:8800 tbenst/beaker-webppl