ipyflow kernel incompatible with google colab

[sadra-barikbin]

Hi, I wanted to use the API of ipyflow (code function) in Google Colab but it raises an error.

from ipyflow import code
# cell 1
x=1
# cell 2
y=x+1
# cell 3
code(y)

python3.10/dist-packages/ipyflow/api/lift.py in _validate(sym)
     11 def _validate(sym: Any) -> Symbol:
     12     if sym is None or not isinstance(sym, Symbol):
---> 13         raise ValueError("unable to lookup metadata for symbol")
     14     return cast(Symbol, sym)
     15 

ValueError: unable to lookup metadata for symbol

The notebooks's kernel is ipyflow as follows:

[smacke]

Hmm, might be necessary to run %load_ext ipyflow on colab first; I'll take a look soon to try and figure out what's going on (responding from mobile at the moment).

[smacke]

Couldn't resist and just took a quick look. Seems that on colab, there's something about the ipyflow kernel subclass that conflicts with colab's own kernel subclass, which is why the dropdown doesn't appear to have an effect (it probably crashes on startup and causes colab to default to its normal kernel). (EDIT: was correct about the conflict, which is now fixed, but that turns out not to be the reason why the dropdown doesn't have an effect)

However, we can still use the ipyflow shell. After running %pip install ipyflow-core, you can run %load_ext ipyflow.shell, and from there ipyflow will start tracing (you'll probably get a warning from pydevd in the first cell you run after that) and it will start tracking dataflow, at which point you can use its APIs. (EDIT: %load_ext ipyflow now works)

[sadra-barikbin]

I'm able to use the API now. thanks.

[smacke]

I'm actually going to keep this open because the kernel incompatibility looks like it's a genuine bug (and fixable, fortunately)

[smacke]

%load_ext ipyflow now works on the latest version of ipyflow (i.e. instead of %load_ext ipyflow.shell), but it looks like getting this kind of support automatically when the runtime is selected from the dropdown will need some help from the Colab side -- I opened googlecolab/colabtools#3988 for this.