GNU ELPA - code-cells

The code-cells-mode minor mode provides the following things:

• Fontification of cell boundaries.
• Keybindings for the cell navigation and evaluation commands, under the C-c % prefix.
• Outline mode integration: cell headers have outline level determined by the number of percent signs or asterisks; within a cell, outline headings are as determined by the major mode, but they are demoted by an amount corresponding to the level of the containing cell. This provides code folding and hierarchical navigation, among other things, when outline-minor-mode is active.

code-cells-mode is automatically activated when opening an ipynb file, but of course you can activate it in any other buffer, either manually or through some hook. There is also the code-cells-mode-maybe function, which activates the minor mode if the current buffer seems to contain cell boundaries. It can be used like this, for instance:

(add-hook 'python-mode-hook 'code-cells-mode-maybe)

The following editing and navigation commands are provided. Their keybindings in code-cells-mode-map are also shown. Note, however, that these commands do not require the minor mode to be active.

• C-c % e: code-cells-eval
• C-c % b: code-cells-backward-cell
• C-c % f: code-cells-forward-cell
• C-c % B: code-cells-move-cell-up
• C-c % F: code-cells-move-cell-down
• C-c % ;: code-cells-comment-or-uncomment
• C-c % @: code-cells-mark-cell

The code-cells-eval command sends the current cell to a suitable REPL, chosen according to the current major and minor modes. The exact behavior is controlled by the code-cells-eval-region-commands variable, which can be customized to suit your needs.

You may prefer shorter keybindings for some of these commands. One sensible possibility is to use C-c C-c to evaluate and M-p resp. M-n to navigate cells. This can be achieved with the following configuration:

(with-eval-after-load 'code-cells
  (let ((map code-cells-mode-map))
    (define-key map (kbd "M-p") 'code-cells-backward-cell)
    (define-key map (kbd "M-n") 'code-cells-forward-cell)
    (define-key map (kbd "C-c C-c") 'code-cells-eval)
    ;; Overriding other minor mode bindings requires some insistence...
    (define-key map [remap jupyter-eval-line-or-region] 'code-cells-eval)))

Similarly to org-mode's speed keys, the code-cells-speed-key function returns a key definition that only acts when the point is at the beginning of a cell boundary. Since this is usually not an interesting place to insert text, you can assign short keybindings there.

No speed keys are set up by default. A sample configuration is as follows:

(with-eval-after-load 'code-cells
  (let ((map code-cells-mode-map))
    (define-key map "n" (code-cells-speed-key 'code-cells-forward-cell))
    (define-key map "p" (code-cells-speed-key 'code-cells-backward-cell))
    (define-key map "e" (code-cells-speed-key 'code-cells-eval))
    (define-key map (kbd "TAB") (code-cells-speed-key 'outline-cycle))))

For Evil users, the following can be used:

(with-eval-after-load 'code-cells
  (let ((map code-cells-mode-map))
    (define-key map [remap evil-search-next] (code-cells-speed-key 'code-cells-forward-cell)) ;; n
    (define-key map [remap evil-paste-after] (code-cells-speed-key 'code-cells-backward-cell)) ;; p
    (define-key map [remap evil-backward-word-begin] (code-cells-speed-key 'code-cells-eval-above)) ;; b
    (define-key map [remap evil-forward-word-end] (code-cells-speed-key 'code-cells-eval)) ;; e
    (define-key map [remap evil-jump-forward] (code-cells-speed-key 'outline-cycle)))) ;; TAB

With this package, you can edit Jupyter notebook (*.ipynb) files as if they were normal plain-text scripts. Converting to and from the JSON-based ipynb format is done by an external tool, Jupytext by default, which needs to be installed separately.

Note that the result cells of ipynb files are not retained in the conversion to script format. This means that opening and then saving an ipynb file clears all cell outputs.

While editing a converted ipynb buffer, you can use the regular write-file command (C-x C-w) to save a copy in script format, as displayed on the screen. Moreover, from any script file with cell separators understood by Jupytext, you can call code-cells-write-ipynb to save a copy in notebook format.

python-cell.el provides similar cell editing commands. It seems to be limited to Python code.

With Jupytext's paired notebook mode it is possible to keep a notebook open in JupyterLab and simultaneously edit a script version in an external text editor.

The EIN package allows to open ipynb files directly in Emacs with an UI similar to Jupyter notebooks. Note that EIN also registers major modes for ipynb files; when installing both packages at the same time, you may need to adjust your auto-mode-alist manually.

Discussions, suggestions and code contributions are welcome! Since this package is part of GNU ELPA, nontrivial contributions (above 15 lines of code) require a copyright assignment to the FSF.