Jupyter-Vim

A vim plugin for developing code on a Jupyter notebook without leaving the terminal. Currently Python and Julia kernels are supported, and more languages are on the way.

Installation

If you don't have a preferred installation method, I recommend installing pathogen.vim, and then run:

    $ cd ~/.vim/bundle
    $ git clone https://github.com/broesler/jupyter-vim.git

Once help tags have been generated, you can view the manual with :help jupyter-vim.

In order for this plugin to work, you must have Jupyter installed in the Python environment that vim's pythonx command uses. If either:

• you use a Python environment manager such as virtualenv, and thus need Jupyter to be present no matter which environment is loaded from the shell you open vim from, or
• you only use one Python environment but you don't want to install Jupyter system-wide for whatever reason,

then the easiest way to meet the Jupyter requirement is to configure vim to load a designated virtualenv at startup. This is just to allow vim to call the Jupyter client; you can run your Jupyter server in whatever Python environment you want. From vim, run

    :pythonx import sys; print(sys.version)

This will tell you whether pythonx is using Python 2 or Python 3. (Or, see :help python_x if you'd like to tweak your pythonx settings.) Create a virtualenv with that python version, for example

    $ virtualenv -p /usr/bin/python2.7 /path/to/my/new/vim_virtualenv

or

    $ virtualenv -p /usr/bin/python3 /path/to/my/new/vim_virtualenv

and then install Jupyter in that environment:

    $ source /path/to/my/new/vim_virtualenv/bin/activate
    $ pip install jupyter

Finally, tell vim to load this virtualenv at startup by adding these lines to your vimrc:

    " Always use the same virtualenv for vim, regardless of what Python
    " environment is loaded in the shell from which vim is launched
    let g:vim_virtualenv_path = '/path/to/my/new/vim_virtualenv'
    if exists('g:vim_virtualenv_path')
        pythonx import os; import vim
        pythonx activate_this = os.path.join(vim.eval('g:vim_virtualenv_path'), 'bin/activate_this.py')
        pythonx with open(activate_this) as f: exec(f.read(), {'__file__': activate_this})
    endif

Quickstart

To begin:

	$ jupyter qtconsole &  # open a jupyter console window
	$ vim <your_script>.py

In vim: :JupyterConnect

Then, use :JupyterRunFile, or :[range]JupyterSendRange to execute lines of code!

Info

Once I fell in love with Vim, I couldn't bear having to jump back and forth between the ipython/jupyter console and editor anymore. I modeled this simple interface off of the ideas in vim-ipython, but have pared down many of the features, like the replication of the Jupyter console in a vim buffer, to make the plugin much more 'lightweight'.

Still a work in progress!

CONTRIBUTING

Please feel free to contact me at [email protected], with the subject line: "[jupyter-vim]: Contributing".

CREDITS

I owe significant thanks to the original developer of this plugin: Paul Ivanov, as well as Marijn van Vliet. It is far easier to update something that already works well than to forge a new path from scratch.