1 #+TITLE: org-babel --- facilitating communication between programming languages and people
2 #+SEQ_TODO: PROPOSED TODO STARTED | DONE DEFERRED REJECTED
3 #+OPTIONS: H:3 num:nil toc:t
4 #+STARTUP: oddeven hideblocks
6 Through Org-Babel Org-Mode can communicate with programming languages.
7 Code contained in source-code blocks can be evaluated and data can
8 pass seamlessly between different programming languages, Org-Mode
9 constructs (tables, file links, example text) and interactive comint
13 - The [[* Introduction][Introduction]] :: provides a brief overview of the design and use
14 of Org-Babel including tutorials and examples.
15 - In [[* Getting started][Getting Started]] :: find instructions for installing org-babel
16 into your emacs configuration.
17 - The [[* Tasks][Tasks]] :: section contains current and past tasks roughly ordered
18 by TODO state, then importance or date-completed. This would be
19 a good place to suggest ideas for development.
20 - The [[* Bugs][Bugs]] :: section contains bug reports.
21 - The [[* Tests][Tests]] :: section consists of a large table which can be
22 evaluated to run Org-Babel's functional test suite. This
23 provides a good overview of the current functionality with
24 pointers to example source blocks.
25 - The [[* Sandbox][Sandbox]] :: demonstrates much of the early/basic functionality
26 through commented source-code blocks.
28 Also see the [[file:library-of-babel.org][Library of Babel]], an extensible collection of ready-made
29 and easily-shortcut-callable source-code blocks for handling common
34 Org-Babel enables *communication* between programming languages and
38 - communication between programs :: Data passes seamlessly between
39 different programming languages, Org-Mode constructs (tables,
40 file links, example text) and interactive comint buffers.
41 - communication between people :: Data and calculations are embedded
42 in the same document as notes explanations and reports.
44 ** communication between programs
46 Org-Mode supports embedded blocks of source code (in any language)
47 inside of Org documents. Org-Babel allows these blocks of code to be
48 executed from within Org-Mode with natural handling of their inputs
52 with both scalar, file, and table output
54 *** reading information from tables
56 *** reading information from other source blocks (disk usage in your home directory)
58 This will work for Linux and Mac users, not so sure about shell
59 commands for windows users.
61 To run place the cursor on the =#+begin_src= line of the source block
62 labeled directory-pie and press =\C-c\C-c=.
64 #+srcname: directories
65 #+begin_src bash :results replace
66 cd ~ && du -sc * |grep -v total
69 #+resname: directories
71 | 11882808 | "Documents" |
72 | 8210024 | "Downloads" |
73 | 879800 | "Library" |
76 | 5307664 | "Pictures" |
85 #+srcname: directory-pie
86 #+begin_src R :var dirs = directories :session R-pie-example
87 pie(dirs[,1], labels = dirs[,2])
95 *** operations in/on tables
97 #+tblname: grades-table
98 | student | grade | letter |
99 |---------+-------+--------|
106 #+TBLFM: $2='(sbe random-score-generator)::$3='(sbe assign-grade (score $2))
108 #+srcname: assign-grade
109 #+begin_src ruby :var score=99
120 #+srcname: random-score-generator
125 #+srcname: show-distribution
126 #+begin_src R :var grades=grades-table
131 ** communication between people
132 Quick overview of Org-Mode's exportation abilities, with links to the
133 online Org-Mode documentation, a focus on source-code blocks, and the
134 exportation options provided by Org-Babel.
136 *** Interactive tutorial
137 This would demonstrate applicability to Reproducible Research, and
138 Literate Programming.
140 *** Tests embedded in documentation
141 org-babels own functional tests are contained in a large org-mode
142 table, allowing the test suite to be run be evaluation of the table
143 and the results to be collected in the same table.
145 *** Emacs initialization files stored in Org-Mode buffers
146 Using `org-babel-tangle' it is possible to embed your Emacs
147 initialization into org-mode files. This allows for folding,
148 note-taking, todo's etc... embedded with the source-code of your Emacs
149 initialization, and through org-mode's publishing features aids in
150 sharing your customizations with others.
152 It may be worthwhile to create a fork of Phil Hagelberg's
153 [[http://github.com/technomancy/emacs-starter-kit/tree/master][emacs-starter-kit]] which uses literate org-mode files for all of the
154 actual elisp customization. These org-mode files could then be
155 exported to html and used to populate the repositories wiki on [[http://github.com/][github]].
160 *** code evaluation (comint buffer sessions and external processes)
161 There are two main ways to evaluate source blocks with org-babel.
163 - external :: By default (if the =:session= header argument is not
164 present) all source code blocks are evaluated in
165 external processes. In these cases an external process
166 is used to evaluate the source-code blocks.
167 - session :: Session based evaluation uses persistent sessions in
168 comint buffers. Sessions can be used across multiple
169 source blocks setting and accessing variables in the
172 Evaluating source blocks in sessions also allows for
173 interaction with the code. To jump to the session of a
174 source block use the `org-babel-pop-to-session' command
175 or press =M-[down]= while inside of a source code block.
176 When called with a prefix argument
177 `org-babel-pop-to-session' will evaluate all header
178 arguments before jumping to the source-code block.
180 *** results (values and outputs)
181 Either the *value* or the *output* of source code blocks can be
182 collected after evaluation.
184 - value :: The default way to collect results from a source-code block
185 is to return the value of the last statement in the block.
186 This can be thought of as the return value of the block.
187 In this case any printed output of the block is ignored.
188 This can be though of a similar to a "functional" value of
190 - output :: Another way of generating results from a source-code block
191 is to collect the output generated by the execution of the
192 block. In this case all printed output is collected
193 throughout the execution of the block. This can be
194 thought of as similar to a "script" style of evaluation.
198 Add the following lines to your .emacs, replacing the path as
199 appropriate. A good place to check that things are up and running
200 would then be [[#sandbox][the sandbox]].
201 #+begin_src emacs-lisp
202 (add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/org-babel/lisp")
203 (require 'org-babel-init)
208 ** PROPOSED optional timestamp for output
209 Add option to place an (inactive) timestamp at the #+resname, to
210 record when that output was generated.
211 ** PROPOSED use example block for large amounts of stdout output?
212 We're currently `examplizing' with : at the beginning of the line,
213 but should larger amounts of output be in a
214 \#+begin_example...\#+end_example block? What's the cutoff? > 1
215 line? This would be nice as it would allow folding of lengthy
216 output. Sometimes one will want to see stdout just to check
217 everything looks OK, and then fold it away.
219 I'm addressing this in branch 'examplizing-output'.
221 ** TODO make tangle files read-only?
222 With a file-local variable setting, yea that makes sense. Maybe
223 the header should reference the related org-mode file.
224 ** TODO take default values for header args from properties
225 Use file-wide and subtree wide properties to set default values for
227 ** TODO support for working with =*Org Edit Src Example*= buffers [2/4]
228 *** TODO optionally evaluate header references when we switch to =*Org Edit Src*= buffer
229 That seems to imply that the header references need to be evaluated
230 and transformed into the target language object when we hit C-c ' to
231 enter the *Org Edit Src* buffer [DED]
233 Good point, I heartily agree that this should be supported [Eric]
235 (or at least before the first time we attempt to evaluate code in that
236 buffer -- I suppose there might be an argument for lazy evaluation, in
237 case someone hits C-c ' but is "just looking" and not actually
238 evaluating anything.) Of course if evaluating the reference is
239 computationally intensive then the user might have to wait before they
240 get the *Org Edit Src* buffer. [DED]
242 I fear that it may be hard to anticipate when the references will be
243 needed, some major-modes do on-the-fly evaluation while the buffer is
244 being edited. I think that we should either do this before the buffer
245 is opened or not at all, specifically I think we should resolve
246 references if the user calls C-c ' with a prefix argument. Does that
247 sound reasonable? [Eric]
251 [Dan] So now that we have org-src-mode and org-src-mode-hook, I guess
252 org-babel should do this by using the hook to make sure that, when C-c
253 C-' is issued on a source block, any references are resolved and
254 assignments are made in the appropriate session.
255 *** TODO set buffer-local-process variables appropriately [DED]
256 I think something like this would be great. You've probably
257 already thought of this, but just to note it down: it would be really
258 nice if org-babel's notion of a buffer's 'session/process' played
259 nicely with ESS's notion of the buffer's session/process. ESS keeps
260 the current process name for a buffer in a buffer-local variable
261 ess-local-process-name. So one thing we will probably want to do is
262 make sure that the *Org Edit Src Example* buffer sets that variable
265 I had not thought of that, but I agree whole heartedly. [Eric]
267 Once this is done every variable should be able to dump regions into
268 their inferior-process buffer using major-mode functions.
269 *** DEFERRED send code to inferior process
270 Another thought on this topic: I think we will want users to send
271 chunks of code to the interpreter from within the *Org Edit Src*
272 buffer, and I think that's what you have in mind already. In ESS that
273 is done using the ess-eval-* functions. [DED]
275 I think we can leave this up to the major-mode in the source code
276 buffer, as almost every source-code major mode will have functions for
277 doing things like sending regions to the inferior process. If
278 anything we might need to set the value of the buffer local inferior
279 process variable. [Eric]
281 *** DONE some possible requests/proposed changes for Carsten [4/4]
282 While I remember, some possible requests/proposed changes for Carsten
283 come to mind in that regard:
285 **** DONE Remap C-x C-s to save the source to the org buffer?
286 I've done this personally and I find it essential. I'm using
287 #+begin_src emacs-lisp
288 (defun org-edit-src-save ()
289 "Update the parent org buffer with the edited source code, save
290 the parent org-buffer, and return to the source code edit
299 (define-key org-exit-edit-mode-map "\C-x\C-s" 'org-edit-src-save)
303 I think this is great, but I think it should be implemented in the
306 **** DEFERRED Rename buffer and minor mode?
307 Something shorter than *Org Edit Src Example* for the buffer
308 name. org-babel is bringing org's source code interaction to a
309 level of maturity where the 'example' is no longer
310 appropriate. And if further keybindings are going to be added to
311 the minor mode then maybe org-edit-src-mode is a better name than
314 Maybe we should name the buffer with a combination of the source
315 code and the session. I think that makes sense.
317 [ES] Are you also suggesting a new org-edit-src minor mode?
318 [DED] org-exit-edit-mode is a minor mode that already exists:
320 Minor mode installing a single key binding, "C-c '" to exit special edit.
322 org-edit-src-save now has a binding in that mode, so I guess all
323 I'm saying at this stage is that it's a bit of a misnomer. But
324 perhaps we will also have more functionality to add to that minor
325 mode, making it even more of a misnomer. Perhaps something like
326 org-src-mode would be better.
327 **** DONE Changed minor mode name and added hooks
329 **** DEFERRED a hook called when the src edit buffer is created
330 This should be implemented in the org-mode core
332 ** TODO resolve references to other org buffers/files
333 This would allow source blocks to call upon tables, source-blocks,
334 and results in other org buffers/files.
337 - [[file:lisp/org-babel-ref.el::TODO%20allow%20searching%20for%20names%20in%20other%20buffers][org-babel-ref.el:searching-in-other-buffers]]
338 - [[file:lisp/org-babel.el::defun%20org-babel%20find%20named%20result%20name][org-babel.el#org-babel-find-named-result]]
339 ** TODO resolve references to other non-org files
340 - tabular data in .csv, .tsv etc format
341 - files of interpreted code: anything stopping us giving such files
342 similar status to a source code block?
343 - Would be nice to allow org and non-org files to be remote
344 ** TODO figure out how to handle errors during evaluation
345 R has a try function, with error handling, along the lines of
346 python. I bet ruby does too. Maybe more of an issue for functional
347 style; in my proposed scripting style the error just gets dumped to
348 the org buffer and the user is thus alerted.
349 ** TODO figure out how to handle graphic output
350 This is listed under [[* graphical output][graphical output]] in out objectives.
352 This should take advantage of the =:results file= option, and
353 languages which almost always produce graphical output should set
354 =:results file= to true by default. That would handle placing these
355 results in the buffer. Then if there is a combination of =silent= and
356 =file= =:results= headers we could drop the results to a temp buffer
357 and pop open that buffer...
358 ** TODO =\C-c \C-o= to open results of source block
359 by adding a =defadvice= to =org-open-at-point= we can use the common
360 =\C-c \C-o= keybinding to open the results of a source-code block.
361 This would be especially useful for source-code blocks which generate
362 graphical results and insert a file link as the results in the
363 org-mode buffer. (see [[* figure out how to handle graphic output][TODO figure out how to handle graphic output]]).
364 This could also act reasonably with other results types...
366 - file :: use org-open-at-point to open the file
367 - scalar :: open results unquoted in a new buffer
368 - tabular :: export the table to a new buffer and open that buffer
370 ** TODO Finalise behaviour regarding vector/scalar output
371 *** DONE Stop spaces causing vector output
372 This simple example of multilingual chaining produces vector output if
373 there are spaces in the message and scalar otherwise.
377 #+begin_src R :var msg=msg-from-python
378 paste(msg, "und R", sep=" ")
382 : org-babel speaks elisp y python und R
384 #+srcname: msg-from-python
385 #+begin_src python :var msg=msg-from-elisp
389 #+srcname: msg-from-elisp
390 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :var msg="org-babel speaks"
391 (concat msg " elisp")
393 ** STARTED share org-babel [1/4]
394 how should we share org-babel?
396 *** DONE post to org-mode
397 *** TODO post to ess mailing list
398 *** TODO create a org-babel page on worg
399 *** TODO create a short screencast demonstrating org-babel in action
402 we need to think up some good examples
404 **** interactive tutorials
405 This could be a place to use [[* org-babel assertions][org-babel assertions]].
407 for example the first step of a tutorial could assert that the version
408 of the software-package (or whatever) is equal to some value, then
409 source-code blocks could be used with confidence (and executed
410 directly from) the rest of the tutorial.
412 **** answering a text-book question w/code example
413 org-babel is an ideal environment enabling both the development and
414 demonstrationg of the code snippets required as answers to many
417 **** something using tables
418 maybe something along the lines of calculations from collected grades
421 Maybe something like the following which outputs sizes of directories
422 under the home directory, and then instead of the trivial =emacs-lisp=
423 block we could use an R block to create a nice pie chart of the
427 #+begin_src bash :results replace
431 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :var sizes=sizes :results replace
435 ** TODO command line execution
436 Allow source code blocks to be called form the command line. This
437 will be easy using the =sbe= function in [[file:lisp/org-babel-table.el][org-babel-table.el]].
439 This will rely upon [[* resolve references to other buffers][resolve references to other buffers]].
441 ** TODO inline source code blocks [3/5]
442 Like the =\R{ code }= blocks
444 not sure what the format should be, maybe just something simple
445 like =src_lang[]{}= where lang is the name of the source code
446 language to be evaluated, =[]= is optional and contains any header
447 arguments and ={}= contains the code.
449 (see [[* (sandbox) inline source blocks][the-sandbox]])
451 *** DONE evaluation with \C-c\C-c
452 Putting aside the header argument issue for now we can just run these
453 with the following default header arguments
454 - =:results= :: silent
455 - =:exports= :: results
457 *** DONE inline exportation
458 Need to add an interblock hook (or some such) through org-exp-blocks
459 *** DONE header arguments
460 We should make it possible to use header arguments.
462 *** TODO fontification
463 we should color these blocks differently
465 *** TODO refine html exportation
466 should use a span class, and should show original source in tool-tip
468 ** TODO formulate general rules for handling vectors and tables / matrices with names
469 This is non-trivial, but may be worth doing, in particular to
470 develop a nice framework for sending data to/from R.
472 In R, indexing vector elements, and rows and columns, using
473 strings rather than integers is an important part of the
475 - elements of a vector may have names
476 - matrices and data.frames may have "column names" and "row names"
477 which can be used for indexing
478 - In a data frame, row names *must* be unique
486 > mat <- matrix(1:4, nrow=2, ncol=2, dimnames=list(c("r1","r2"), c("c1","c2")))
491 > # The names are separate from the data: they do not interfere with operations on the data
498 > df <- data.frame(var1=1:26, var2=26:1, row.names=letters)
500 [1] 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
506 So it's tempting to try to provide support for this in org-babel. For example
507 - allow R to refer to columns of a :var reference by their names
508 - When appropriate, results from R appear in the org buffer with "named
511 However none (?) of the other languages we are currently supporting
512 really have a native matrix type, let alone "column names" or "row
513 names". Names are used in e.g. python and perl to refer to entries
516 It currently seems to me that support for this in org-babel would
517 require setting rules about when org tables are considered to have
518 named columns/fields, and ensuring that (a) languages with a notion
519 of named columns/fields use them appropriately and (b) languages
520 with no such notion do not treat then as data.
522 - Org allows something that *looks* like column names to be separated
524 - Org also allows a row to *function* as column names when special
525 markers are placed in the first column. An hline is unnecessary
526 (indeed hlines are purely cosmetic in org [correct?]
527 - Org does not have a notion of "row names" [correct?]
529 The full org table functionality exeplified [[http://orgmode.org/manual/Advanced-features.html#Advanced-features][here]] has features that
530 we would not support in e.g. R (like names for the row below).
532 *** Initial statement: allow tables with hline to be passed as args into R
533 This doesn't seem to work at the moment (example below). It would
534 also be nice to have a natural way for the column names of the org
535 table to become the column names of the R data frame, and to have
536 the option to specify that the first column is to be used as row
537 names in R (these must be unique). But this might require a bit of
542 | col1 | col2 | col3 |
543 |------+---------+------|
551 #+begin_src R var tabel=egtable
556 | "col1" | "col2" | "col3" |
557 |--------+-----------+--------|
559 | 4 | "schulte" | 6 |
562 Another example is in the [[*operations%20in%20on%20tables][grades example]].
564 ** TODO re-implement helper functions from org-R
565 *** Initial statement [Eric]
566 Much of the power of org-R seems to be in it's helper functions for
567 the quick graphing of tables. Should we try to re-implement these
568 functions on top of org-babel?
570 I'm thinking this may be useful both to add features to org-babel-R and
571 also to potentially suggest extensions of the framework. For example
572 one that comes to mind is the ability to treat a source-code block
573 like a function which accepts arguments and returns results. Actually
574 this can be it's own TODO (see [[* source blocks as functions][source blocks as functions]]).
576 - We want to provide convenient off-the-shelf actions
577 (e.g. plotting data) that make use of our new code evaluation
578 environment but do not require any actual coding.
579 *** Initial Design proposal [Dan]
580 - *Input data* will be specified using the same mechanism as :var
581 references, thus the input data may come from a table, or
582 another source block, and it is initially available as an elisp
584 - We introduce a new #+ line, e.g. #+BABELDO. C-c C-c on that
585 line will apply an *action* to the referenced data.
586 - *Actions correspond to source blocks*: our library of available
587 actions will be a library of org-babel source blocks. Thus the
588 code for executing an action, and the code for dealing with the
589 output of the action will be the same code as for executing
590 source blocks in general
591 - Optionally, the user can have the relevant source block inserted
592 into the org buffer after the (say) #+BABELDO line. This will
593 allow the user to fine tune the action by modifying the code
594 (especially useful for plots).
595 - So maybe a #+BABELDO line will have header args
596 - :data (a reference to a table or source code block)
597 - :action (or should that be :srcname?) which will be something
598 like :action pie-chart, referring to a source block which will
599 be executed with the :data referent passed in using a :var arg.
600 - :showcode or something controlling whether to show the code
602 *** Modification to design
603 I'm implementing this, at least initially, as a new interpreter
604 named 'babel', which has an empty body. 'babel' blocks take
605 a :srcname header arg, and look for the source-code block with
606 that name. They then execute the referenced block, after first
607 appending their own header args on to the target block's header
610 If the target block is in the library of babel (a.o.t. e.g. the
611 current buffer), then the code in the block will refer to the
612 input data with a name dictated by convention (e.g. __data__
613 (something which is syntactically legal in all languages...). Thus
614 the babel block will use a :var __data__ = whatever header arg to
615 reference the data to be plotted.
618 This is covered by the [[file:library-of-babel.org][Library of Babel]], which will contain
619 ready-made source blocks designed to carry out useful common tasks.
620 ** PROPOSED Are we happy with current behaviour regarding vector/scalar output?
621 This simple example of multilingual chaining produces vector output if
622 there are spaces in the message and scalar otherwise.
624 #+begin_src R :var msg=msg-from-python
625 paste(msg, "und_R", sep="_")
628 #+srcname: msg-from-python
629 #+begin_src python :var msg=msg-from-elisp
633 #+srcname: msg-from-elisp
634 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :var msg="org-babel_speaks"
635 (concat msg "_elisp")
638 ** PROPOSED conversion between org-babel and noweb (e.g. .Rnw) format
639 I haven't thought about this properly. Just noting it down. What
640 Sweave uses is called "R noweb" (.Rnw).
642 I found a good description of noweb in the following article (see
643 the [[http://www.cs.tufts.edu/~nr/pubs/lpsimp.pdf][pdf]]).
645 I think there are two parts to noweb, the construction of
646 documentation and the extraction of source-code (with notangle).
648 *documentation*: org-mode handles all of our documentation needs in
649 a manner that I believe is superior to noweb.
651 *source extraction* At this point I don't see anyone writing large
652 applications with 100% of the source code contained in org-babel
653 files, rather I see org-babel files containing things like
654 - notes with active code chunks
655 - interactive tutorials
656 - requirements documents with code running test suites
657 - and of course experimental reports with the code to run the
658 experiment, and perform analysis
660 Basically I think the scope of the programs written in org-babel
661 (at least initially) will be small enough that it wont require the
662 addition of a tangle type program to extract all of the source code
663 into a running application.
665 On the other hand, since we already have named blocks of source
666 code which reference other blocks on which they rely, this
667 shouldn't be too hard to implement either on our own, or possibly
668 relying on something like noweb/notangle.
670 ** PROPOSED support for passing paths to files between source blocks
671 Maybe this should be it's own result type (in addition to scalars and
672 vectors). The reason being that some source-code blocks (for example
673 ditaa or anything that results in the creation of a file) may want to
674 pass a file path back to org-mode which could then be inserted into
675 the org-mode buffer as a link to the file...
677 This would allow for display of images upon export providing
678 functionality similar to =org-exp-blocks= only in a more general
681 ** DEFERRED use textConnection to pass tsv to R?
682 When passing args from the org buffer to R, the following route is
683 used: arg in buffer -> elisp -> tsv on file -> data frame in R. I
684 think it would be possible to avoid having to write to file by
685 constructing an R expression in org-babel-R-assign-elisp, something
688 #+begin_src emacs-lisp
689 (org-babel-R-input-command
690 (format "%s <- read.table(textConnection(\"%s\"), sep=\"\\t\", as.is=TRUE)"
691 name (orgtbl-to-tsv value '(:sep "\t" :fmt org-babel-R-quote-tsv-field))))
694 I haven't tried to implement this yet as it's basically just
695 fiddling with something that works. The only reason for it I can
696 think of would be efficiency and I haven't tested that.
698 This Didn't work after an initial test. I still think this is a
699 good idea (I also think we should try to do something similar when
700 writing out results frmo R to elisp) however as it wouldn't result
701 in any functional changes I'm bumping it down to deferred for
706 #+tblname: quick-test
709 #+srcname: quick-test-src-blk
710 #+begin_src R :var vec=quick-test
716 ** DEFERRED re-implement R evaluation using ess-command or ess-execute
717 I don't have any complaints with the current R evaluation code or
718 behaviour, but I think it would be good to use the ESS functions
719 from a political point of view. Plus of course it has the normal
720 benefits of an API (insulates us from any underlying changes etc). [DED]
722 I'll look into this. I believe that I looked at and rejected these
723 functions initially but now I can't remember why. I agree with
724 your overall point about using API's where available. I will take
725 a look back at these and either switch to using the ess commands,
726 or at least articulate under this TODO the reasons for using our
727 custom R-interaction commands. [Eric]
731 Lets just replace =org-babel-R-input-command= with =ess-execute=.
733 I tried this, and although it works in some situations, I find that
734 =ess-command= will often just hang indefinitely without returning
735 results. Also =ess-execute= will occasionally hang, and pops up
736 the buffer containing the results of the command's execution, which
737 is undesirable. For now these functions can not be used. Maybe
738 someone more familiar with the ESS code can recommend proper usage
739 of =ess-command= or some other lower-level function which could be
740 used in place of [[file:lisp/org-babel-R.el::defun%20org-babel%20R%20input%20command%20command][org-babel-R-input-command]].
744 #+begin_quote ess-command
745 (ess-command COM &optional BUF SLEEP NO-PROMPT-CHECK)
747 Send the ESS process command COM and delete the output
748 from the ESS process buffer. If an optional second argument BUF exists
749 save the output in that buffer. BUF is erased before use.
750 COM should have a terminating newline.
751 Guarantees that the value of .Last.value will be preserved.
752 When optional third arg SLEEP is non-nil, `(sleep-for (* a SLEEP))'
753 will be used in a few places where `a' is proportional to `ess-cmd-delay'.
756 #+begin_quote ess-execute
757 (ess-execute COMMAND &optional INVERT BUFF MESSAGE)
759 Send a command to the ESS process.
760 A newline is automatically added to COMMAND. Prefix arg (or second arg
761 INVERT) means invert the meaning of
762 `ess-execute-in-process-buffer'. If INVERT is 'buffer, output is
763 forced to go to the process buffer. If the output is going to a
764 buffer, name it *BUFF*. This buffer is erased before use. Optional
765 fourth arg MESSAGE is text to print at the top of the buffer (defaults
766 to the command if BUFF is not given.)
769 *** out current setup
771 1) The body of the R source code block is wrapped in a function
772 2) The function is called inside of a =write.table= function call
773 writing the results to a table
774 3) The table is read using =org-table-import=
776 ** DEFERRED Rework Interaction with Running Processes [2/5]
777 *** DONE robust to errors interrupting execution
779 #+srcname: long-runner-ruby
780 #+begin_src ruby :results silent
785 *** DEFERRED use =C-g= keyboard-quit to push processing into the background
786 This may be possible using the `run-with-timer' command.
788 I have no idea how this could work...
790 #+srcname: long-runner-ruby
791 #+begin_src ruby :results silent
796 *** TODO ability to select which of multiple sessions is being used
797 Increasingly it is looking like we're going to want to run all
798 source code blocks in comint buffer (sessions). Which will have
800 1) allowing background execution
801 2) maintaining state between source-blocks
802 - allowing inline blocks w/o header arguments
805 (like ess-switch-process in .R buffers)
807 Maybe this could be packaged into a header argument, something
808 like =:R_session= which could accept either the name of the
809 session to use, or the string =prompt=, in which case we could use
810 the =ess-switch-process= command to select a new process.
812 *** TODO evaluation of shell code as background process?
813 After C-c C-c on an R code block, the process may appear to
814 block, but C-g can be used to reclaim control of the .org buffer,
815 without interrupting the R evalution. However I believe this is not
816 true of bash/sh evaluation. [Haven't tried other languages] Perhaps
817 a solution is just to background the individual shell commands.
819 The other languages (aside from emacs lisp) are run through the
820 shell, so if we find a shell solution it should work for them as
823 Adding an ampersand seems to be a supported way to run commands in
824 the background (see [[http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/ExecuteExternalCommand#toc4][external-commands]]). Although a more extensible
825 solution may involve the use of the [[elisp:(progn (describe-function 'call-process-region) nil)][call-process-region]] function.
827 Going to try this out in a new file [[file:lisp/org-babel-proc.el][org-babel-proc.el]]. This should
828 contain functions for asynchronously running generic shell commands
829 in the background, and then returning their input.
831 **** partial update of org-mode buffer
832 The sleekest solution to this may be using a comint buffer, and
833 then defining a filter function which would incrementally interpret
834 the results as they are returned, including insertion into the
835 org-mode buffer. This may actually cause more problems than it is
836 worth, what with the complexities of identifying the types of
837 incrementally returned results, and the need for maintenance of a
838 process marker in the org buffer.
840 **** 'working' spinner
841 It may be nice and not too difficult to place a spinner on/near the
842 evaluating source code block
844 *** TODO conversion of output from interactive shell, R (and python) sessions to org-babel buffers
845 [DED] This would be a nice feature I think. Although an org-babel
846 purist would say that it's working the wrong way round... After
847 some interactive work in a *R* buffer, you save the buffer, maybe
848 edit out some lines, and then convert it to org-babel format for
849 posterity. Same for a shell session either in a *shell* buffer, or
850 pasted from another terminal emulator. And python of course.
852 ** DEFERRED improve the source-block snippet
853 any real improvement seems somewhat beyond the ability of yasnippet
856 [[file:~/src/emacs-starter-kit/src/snippets/text-mode/rst-mode/chap::name%20Chapter%20title][file:~/src/emacs-starter-kit/src/snippets/text-mode/rst-mode/chap::name Chapter title]]
858 ,#name : Chapter title
861 ${1:$(make-string (string-width text) ?\=)}
866 [[file:snippets/org-mode/sb][sb -- snippet]]
868 waiting for guidance from those more familiar with yasnippets
869 ** DONE LoB: allow output in buffer
870 ** DONE allow default header arguments by language
871 org-babel-default-header-args:lang-name
873 An example of when this is useful is for languages which always return
874 files as their results (e.g. [[*** ditaa][ditaa]], and [[*** gnuplot][gnuplot]]).
875 ** DONE singe-function tangling and loading elisp from literate org-mode file [3/3]
877 This function should tangle the org-mode file for elisp, and then call
878 `load-file' on the resulting tangled file.
880 #+srcname: test-loading-embedded-emacs-lisp
881 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :results replace
882 (setq test-tangle-advert nil)
883 (setq test-tangle-loading nil)
884 (setq results (list :before test-tangle-loading test-tangle-advert))
885 (org-babel-load-file "test-tangle.org")
886 (setq results (list (list :after test-tangle-loading test-tangle-advert) results))
887 (delete-file "test-tangle.el")
891 #+resname: test-loading-embedded-emacs-lisp
892 | :before | nil | nil |
893 | :after | "org-babel tangles" | "use org-babel-tangle for all your emacs initialization files!!" |
895 *** DONE add optional language limiter to org-babel-tangle
896 This should check to see if there is any need to re-export
898 *** DONE ensure that org-babel-tangle returns the path to the tangled file(s)
900 #+srcname: test-return-value-of-org-babel-tangle
901 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :results replace
902 (mapcar #'file-name-nondirectory (org-babel-tangle-file "test-tangle.org" "emacs-lisp"))
908 *** DONE only tangle the file if it's actually necessary
909 ** DONE add a function to jump to a source-block by name
910 I've had an initial stab at that in org-babel-find-named-block
911 (library-of-babel branch).
913 At the same time I introduced org-babel-named-src-block-regexp, to
914 match src-blocks with srcname.
916 This is now working with the command
917 `org-babel-goto-named-source-block', all we need is a good key
920 ** DONE add =:none= session argument (for purely functional execution) [4/4]
921 This would allow source blocks to be run in their own new process
923 - These blocks could then also be run in the background (since we can
924 detach and just wait for the process to signal that it has terminated)
925 - We wouldn't be drowning in session buffers after running the tests
926 - we can re-use much of the session code to run in a more /functional/
929 While session provide a lot of cool features, like persistent
930 environments, [[* DONE function to bring up inferior-process buffer][pop-to-session]], and hints at exportation for
931 org-babel-tangle, they also have some down sides and I'm thinking that
932 session-based execution maybe shouldn't be the default behavior.
934 Down-sides to sessions
935 - *much* more complicated than functional evaluation
936 - maintaining the state of the session has weird issues
937 - waiting for evaluation to finish
938 - prompt issues like [[* TODO weird escaped characters in shell prompt break shell evaluation][shell-prompt-escapes-bug]]
939 - can't run in background
940 - litter emacs with session buffers
944 #+srcname: ruby-task-no-session
945 #+begin_src ruby :results replace output
951 #+resname: ruby-task-no-session
956 #+srcname: task-python-none-session
957 #+begin_src python :session none :results replace value
963 #+resname: task-python-none-session
968 #+srcname: task-session-none-sh
969 #+begin_src sh :results replace
974 #+resname: task-session-none-sh
980 #+srcname: task-no-session-R
981 #+begin_src R :results replace output
988 #+resname: task-no-session-R
992 ** DONE fully purge org-babel-R of direct comint interaction
993 try to remove all code under the [[file:lisp/org-babel-R.el::functions%20for%20evaluation%20of%20R%20code][;; functions for evaluation of R code]] line
995 ** DONE Create objects in top level (global) environment [5/5]
998 *** initial requirement statement [DED]
999 At the moment, objects created by computations performed in the
1000 code block are evaluated in the scope of the
1001 code-block-function-body and therefore disappear when the code
1002 block is evaluated {unless you employ some extra trickery like
1003 assign('name', object, env=globalenv()) }. I think it will be
1004 desirable to also allow for a style wherein objects that are
1005 created in one code block persist in the R global environment and
1006 can be re-used in a separate block.
1008 This is what Sweave does, and while I'm not saying we have to be
1009 the same as Sweave, it wouldn't be hard for us to provide the same
1010 behaviour in this case; if we don't, we risk undeservedly being
1011 written off as an oddity by some.
1013 IOW one aspect of org-babel is that of a sort of functional
1014 meta-programming language. This is crazy, in a very good
1015 way. Nevertheless, wrt R I think there's going to be a lot of value
1016 in providing for a working style in which the objects are stored in
1017 the R session, rather than elisp/org buffer. This will be a very
1018 familiar working style to lots of people.
1020 There are no doubt a number of different ways of accomplishing
1021 this, the simplest being a hack like adding
1024 for(objname in ls())
1025 assign(objname, get(objname), envir=globalenv())
1028 to the source code block function body. (Maybe wrap it in an on.exit() call).
1030 However this may deserve to be thought about more carefully, perhaps
1031 with a view to having a uniform approach across languages. E.g. shell
1032 code blocks have the same semantics at the moment (no persistence of
1033 variables across code blocks), because the body is evaluated in a new
1034 bash shell process rather than a running shell. And I guess the same
1035 is true for python. However, in both these cases, you could imagine
1036 implementing the alternative in which the body is evaluated in a
1037 persistent interactive session. It's just that it's particularly
1038 natural for R, seeing as both ESS and org-babel evaluate commands in a
1039 single persistent R session.
1043 Thanks for bringing this up. I think you are absolutely correct that we
1044 should provide support for a persistent environment (maybe called a
1045 *session*) in which to evaluate code blocks. I think the current setup
1046 demonstrates my personal bias for a functional style of programming
1047 which is certainly not ideal in all contexts.
1049 While the R function you mention does look like an elegant solution, I
1050 think we should choose an implementation that would be the same across
1051 all source code types. Specifically I think we should allow the user to
1052 specify an optional *session* as a header variable (when not present we
1053 assume a default session for each language). The session name could be
1054 used to name a comint buffer (like the *R* buffer) in which all
1055 evaluation would take place (within which variables would retain their
1056 values --at least once I remove some of the functional method wrappings
1057 currently in place-- ).
1059 This would allow multiple environments to be used in the same buffer,
1060 and once this setup was implemented we should be able to fairly easily
1061 implement commands for jumping between source code blocks and the
1062 related session buffers, as well as for dumping the last N commands from
1063 a session into a new or existing source code block.
1065 Please let me know if you foresee any problems with this proposed setup,
1066 or if you think any parts might be confusing for people coming from
1067 Sweave. I'll hopefully find some time to work on this later in the
1070 *** can functional and interpreted/interactive models coexist?
1072 Even though both of these use the same =*R*= buffer the value of =a=
1073 is not preserved because it is assigned inside of a functional
1076 #+srcname: task-R-sessions
1083 #+srcname: task-R-same-session
1088 This functional wrapper was implemented in order to efficiently return
1089 the results of the execution of the entire source code block. However
1090 it inhibits the evaluation of source code blocks in the top level,
1091 which would allow for persistence of variable assignment across
1092 evaluations. How can we allow *both* evaluation in the top level, and
1093 efficient capture of the return value of an entire source code block
1094 in a language independent manner?
1096 Possible solutions...
1097 1) we can't so we will have to implement two types of evaluation
1098 depending on which is appropriate (functional or imperative)
1099 2) we remove the functional wrapper and parse the source code block
1100 into it's top level statements (most often but not always on line
1101 breaks) so that we can isolate the final segment which is our
1103 3) we add some sort of "#+return" line to the code block
1104 4) we take advantage of each languages support for meta-programming
1105 through =eval= type functions, and use said to evaluate the entire
1106 blocks in such a way that their environment can be combined with the
1107 global environment, and their results are still captured.
1108 5) I believe that most modern languages which support interactive
1109 sessions have support for a =last_result= type function, which
1110 returns the result of the last input without re-calculation. If
1111 widely enough present this would be the ideal solution to a
1112 combination of functional and imperative styles.
1114 None of these solutions seem very desirable, but for now I don't see
1115 what else would be possible.
1117 Of these options I was leaning towards (1) and (4) but now believe
1118 that if it is possible option (5) will be ideal.
1120 **** (1) both functional and imperative evaluation
1122 - can take advantage of built in functions for sending regions to the
1124 - retains the proven tested and working functional wrappers
1127 - introduces the complication of keeping track of which type of
1128 evaluation is best suited to a particular context
1129 - the current functional wrappers may require some changes in order to
1130 include the existing global context
1132 **** (4) exploit language meta-programming constructs to explicitly evaluate code
1134 - only one type of evaluation
1137 - some languages may not have sufficient meta-programming constructs
1139 **** (5) exploit some =last_value= functionality if present
1141 Need to ensure that most languages have such a function, those without
1142 will simply have to implement their own similar solution...
1144 | language | =last_value= function |
1145 |------------+-----------------------------|
1149 | shell | see [[* last command for shells][last command for shells]] |
1150 | emacs-lisp | see [[* emacs-lisp will be a special case][special-case]] |
1152 #+srcname: task-last-value
1157 ***** last command for shells
1158 Do this using the =tee= shell command, and continually pipe the output
1161 Got this idea from the following [[http://linux.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/Fedora/2004-01/0898.html][email-thread]].
1163 suggested from mailing list
1165 #+srcname: bash-save-last-output-to-file
1169 bash -c "$line" | tee /tmp/last.out1
1170 mv /tmp/last.out1 /tmp/last.out
1174 another proposed solution from the above thread
1176 #+srcname: bash-save-in-variable
1179 # so - Save Output. Saves output of command in OUT shell variable.
1189 "^M": " | tee /tmp/h_lastcmd.out ^[k"
1192 export __=/tmp/h_lastcmd.out
1194 If you try it, Alt-k will stand for the old Enter; use "command $__" to
1195 access the last output.
1201 Herculano de Lima Einloft Neto
1204 ***** emacs-lisp will be a special case
1205 While it is possible for emacs-lisp to be run in a console type
1206 environment (see the =elim= function) it is *not* possible to run
1207 emacs-lisp in a different *session*. Meaning any variable set top
1208 level of the console environment will be set *everywhere* inside
1209 emacs. For this reason I think that it doesn't make any sense to
1210 worry about session support for emacs-lisp.
1212 *** Further thoughts on 'scripting' vs. functional approaches
1214 These are just thoughts, I don't know how sure I am about this.
1215 And again, perhaps I'm not saying anything very radical, just that
1216 it would be nice to have some options supporting things like
1217 receiving text output in the org buffer.
1219 I can see that you've already gone some way down the road towards
1220 the 'last value' approach, so sorry if my comments come rather
1221 late. I am concerned that we are not giving sufficient attention
1222 to stdout / the text that is returned by the interpreters. In
1223 contrast, many of our potential users will be accustomed to a
1224 'scripting' approach, where they are outputting text at various
1225 points in the code block, not just at the end. I am leaning
1226 towards thinking that we should have 2 modes of evaluation:
1227 'script' mode, and 'functional' mode.
1229 In script mode, evaluation of a code block would result in *all*
1230 text output from that code block appearing as output in the org
1231 buffer, presumably as an #+begin_example...#+end_example. There
1232 could be an :echo option controlling whether the input commands
1233 also appear in the output. [This is like Sweave].
1235 In functional mode, the *result* of the code block is available as
1236 an elisp object, and may appear in the org buffer as an org
1237 table/string, via the mechanisms you have developed already.
1239 One thing I'm wondering about is whether, in script mode, there
1240 simply should not be a return value. Perhaps this is not so
1241 different from what exists: script mode would be new, and what
1242 exists currently would be functional mode.
1244 I think it's likely that, while code evaluation will be exciting
1245 to people, a large majority of our users in a large majority of
1246 their usage will not attempt to actually use the return value from
1247 a source code block in any meaningful way. In that case, it seems
1248 rather restrictive to only allow them to see output from the end
1251 Instead I think the most accessible way to introduce org-babel to
1252 people, at least while they are learning it, is as an immensely
1253 powerful environment in which to embed their 'scripts', which now
1254 also allows them to 'run' their 'scripts'. Especially as such
1255 people are likely to be the least capable of the user-base, a
1256 possible design-rule would be to make the scripting style of usage
1257 easy (default?), perhaps requiring a special option to enable a
1258 functional style. Those who will use the functional style won't
1259 have a problem understanding what's going on, whereas the 'skript
1260 kiddies' might not even know the syntax for defining a function in
1261 their language of choice. And of course we can allow the user to
1262 set a variable in their .emacs controlling the preference, so that
1263 functional users are not inconveniennced by having to provide
1264 header args the whole time.
1266 Please don't get the impression that I am down-valuing the
1267 functional style of org-babel. I am constantly horrified at the
1268 messy 'scripts' that my colleagues produce in perl or R or
1269 whatever! Nevertheless that seems to be how a lot of people work.
1271 I think you were leaning towards the last-value approach because
1272 it offered the possibility of unified code supporting both the
1273 single evaluation environment and the functional style. If you
1274 agree with any of the above then perhaps it will impact upon this
1275 and mean that the code in the two branches has to differ a bit. In
1276 that case, functional mode could perhaps after all evaluate each
1277 code block in its own environment, thus (re)approaching 'true'
1278 functional programming (side-effects are hard to achieve).
1282 echo "There are `wc -l files` files in this directory"
1286 *** even more thoughts on evaluation, results, models and options
1288 Thanks Dan, These comments are invaluable.
1290 What do you think about this as a new list of priorities/requirements
1291 for the execution of source-code blocks.
1294 1) we want the evaluation of the source code block to take place in a
1295 session which can persist state (variables, current directory,
1297 2) source code blocks can specify their session with a header argument
1298 3) each session should correspond to an Emacs comint buffer so that the
1299 user can drop into the session and experiment with live code
1302 1) each source-code block generates some form of results which (as
1303 we have already implemented) is transfered into emacs-lisp
1304 after which it can be inserted into the org-mode buffer, or
1305 used by other source-code blocks
1306 2) when the results are translated into emacs-lisp, forced to be
1307 interpreted as a scalar (dumping their raw values into the
1308 org-mode buffer), as a vector (which is often desirable with R
1309 code blocks), or interpreted on the fly (the default option).
1310 Note that this is very nearly currently implemented through the
1311 [[* DONE results-type header (vector/file)][results-type-header]].
1312 3) there should be *two* means of collecting results from the
1313 execution of a source code block. *Either* the value of the
1314 last statement of the source code block, or the collection of
1315 all that has been passed to STDOUT during the evaluation.
1317 **** header argument or return line (*header argument*)
1319 Rather than using a header argument to specify how the return value
1320 should be passed back, I'm leaning towards the use of a =#+RETURN=
1321 line inside the block. If such a line *is not present* then we
1322 default to using STDOUT to collect results, but if such a line *is
1323 present* then we use it's value as the results of the block. I
1324 think this will allow for the most elegant specification between
1325 functional and script execution. This also cleans up some issues
1326 of implementation and finding which statement is the last
1329 Having given this more thought, I think a header argument is
1330 preferable. The =#+return:= line adds new complicating syntax for
1331 something that does little more than we would accomplish through
1332 the addition of a header argument. The only benefit being that we
1333 know where the final statement starts, which is not an issue in
1334 those languages which contain 'last value' operators.
1336 new header =:results= arguments
1337 - script :: explicitly states that we want to use STDOUT to
1338 initialize our results
1339 - return_last :: stdout is ignored instead the *value* of the final
1340 statement in the block is returned
1341 - echo :: means echo the contents of the source-code block along
1342 with the results (this implies the *script* =:results=
1345 *** DONE rework evaluation lang-by-lang [4/4]
1347 This should include...
1348 - functional results working with the comint buffer
1350 - script :: return the output of STDOUT
1351 - write a macro which runs the first redirection, executes the
1352 body, then runs the second redirection
1353 - last :: return the value of the last statement
1356 - sessions in comint buffers
1358 **** DONE Ruby [4/4]
1359 - [X] functional results working with comint
1360 - [X] script results
1361 - [X] ensure scalar/vector results args are taken into consideration
1362 - [X] ensure callable by other source block
1364 #+srcname: ruby-use-last-output
1365 #+begin_src ruby :results replace
1372 #+resname: ruby-use-last-output
1375 #+srcname: task-call-use-last-output
1376 #+begin_src ruby :var last=ruby-use-last-output :results replace
1377 last.flatten.size + 1
1380 #+resname: task-call-use-last-output
1385 #+srcname: first-ruby-session-task
1386 #+begin_src ruby :session schulte :results silent
1390 #+srcname: second-ruby-session-task
1391 #+begin_src ruby :session schulte :results silent
1395 #+srcname: without-the-right-session
1396 #+begin_src ruby :results silent
1402 - [X] functional results working with comint
1403 - [X] script results
1404 - [X] ensure scalar/vector results args are taken into consideration
1405 - [X] ensure callable by other source block
1407 To redirect output to a file, you can use the =sink()= command.
1410 #+begin_src R :results value vector silent
1417 #+srcname: task-R-use-other-output
1418 #+begin_src R :var twoentyseven=task_R_B() :results replace value
1423 #+resname: task-R-use-other-output
1426 **** DONE Python [4/4]
1427 - [X] functional results working with comint
1428 - [X] script results
1429 - [X] ensure scalar/vector results args are taken into consideration
1430 - [X] ensure callable by other source block
1432 #+srcname: task-new-eval-for-python
1433 #+begin_src python :results silent output scalar
1439 #+srcname: task-use-new-eval
1440 #+begin_src python :var tasking=task-new-eval-for-python() :results replace
1444 #+resname: task-use-new-eval
1447 **** DONE Shells [4/4]
1448 - [X] functional results working with comint
1449 - [X] script results
1450 - [X] ensure scalar/vector results args are taken into consideration
1451 - [X] ensure callable by other source block
1453 #+srcname: task-shell-new-evaluation
1454 #+begin_src sh :results silent value scalar
1459 #+srcname: task-call-other-shell
1460 #+begin_src sh :var other=task-shell-new-evaluation() :results replace scalar
1461 echo $other ' is the old date'
1464 #+resname: task-call-other-shell
1465 : $ Fri Jun 12 13:08:37 PDT 2009 is the old date
1467 *** DONE implement a *session* header argument [4/4]
1468 =:session= header argument to override the default *session* buffer
1472 #+srcname: task-ruby-named-session
1473 #+begin_src ruby :session schulte :results replace
1474 schulte = :in_schulte
1477 #+resname: task-ruby-named-session
1480 #+srcname: another-in-schulte
1481 #+begin_src ruby :session schulte
1485 #+resname: another-in-schulte
1492 #+srcname: python-session-task
1493 #+begin_src python :session what :results silent
1497 #+srcname: python-get-from-session
1498 #+begin_src python :session what :results replace
1502 #+resname: python-get-from-session
1507 #+srcname: task-shell-sessions
1508 #+begin_src sh :session what
1512 #+srcname: task-shell-sessions-what
1513 #+begin_src sh :session what :results replace
1517 #+resname: task-shell-sessions-what
1522 #+srcname: task-R-session
1523 #+begin_src R :session what :results replace
1529 #+resname: task-R-session
1532 #+srcname: another-task-R-session
1533 #+begin_src R :session what :results replace
1537 *** DONE function to bring up inferior-process buffer [4/4]
1539 This should be callable from inside of a source-code block in an
1540 org-mode buffer. It should evaluate the header arguments, then bring
1541 up the inf-proc buffer using =pop-to-buffer=.
1543 For lack of a better place, lets add this to the `org-metadown-hook'
1546 To give this a try, place the cursor on a source block with variables,
1547 (optionally git a prefix argument) then hold meta and press down.
1551 #+srcname: task-ruby-pop-to-session
1552 #+begin_src ruby :var num=9 :var another="something else"
1553 num.times{|n| puts another}
1558 #+srcname: task-python-pop-to-session
1559 #+begin_src python :var num=9 :var another="something else"
1564 #+srcname: task-R-pop-to-session
1565 #+begin_src R :var a=9 :var b=8
1571 #+srcname: task-shell-pop-sessions
1572 #+begin_src sh :var NAME="eric"
1576 *** DEFERRED function to dump last N lines from inf-proc buffer into the current source block
1578 Callable with a prefix argument to specify how many lines should be
1579 dumped into the source-code buffer.
1581 *** REJECTED comint notes
1583 Implementing comint integration in [[file:lisp/org-babel-comint.el][org-babel-comint.el]].
1586 - handling of outputs
1587 - split raw output from process by prompts
1588 - a ring of the outputs, buffer-local, `org-babel-comint-output-ring'
1589 - a switch for dumping all outputs to a buffer
1590 - inputting commands
1592 Lets drop all this language specific stuff, and just use
1593 org-babel-comint to split up our outputs, and return either the last
1594 value of an execution or the combination of values from the
1597 **** comint filter functions
1598 : ;; comint-input-filter-functions hook process-in-a-buffer
1599 : ;; comint-output-filter-functions hook function modes.
1600 : ;; comint-preoutput-filter-functions hook
1601 : ;; comint-input-filter function ...
1603 #+srcname: obc-filter-ruby
1604 #+begin_src ruby :results last
1612 ** DONE Remove protective commas from # comments before evaluating
1613 org inserts protective commas in front of ## comments in language
1614 modes that use them. We need to remove them prior to sending code
1617 #+srcname: testing-removal-of-protective-comas
1619 ,# this one might break it??
1623 ** DONE pass multiple reference arguments into R
1624 Can we do this? I wasn't sure how to supply multiple 'var' header
1625 args. Just delete this if I'm being dense.
1627 This should be working, see the following example...
1629 #+srcname: two-arg-example
1630 #+begin_src R :var n=2 :var m=8
1634 #+resname: two-arg-example
1637 ** DONE ensure that table ranges work
1638 when a table range is passed to org-babel as an argument, it should be
1639 interpreted as a vector.
1642 | 2 | 3 | Fixnum:1 |
1643 | 3 | 4 | Array:123456 |
1647 #+TBLFM: @1$3='(sbe simple-sbe-example (n 4))::@2$3='(sbe task-table-range (n @1$1..@6$1))::@3$3='(sbe task-table-range (n (@1$1..@6$1)))
1649 #+srcname: simple-sbe-example
1650 #+begin_src emacs-lisp
1654 #+srcname: task-table-range
1655 #+begin_src ruby :var n=simple-sbe-example
1659 #+srcname: simple-results
1660 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :var n=task-table-range(n=(1 2 3))
1664 #+resname: simple-results
1667 #+srcname: task-arr-referent
1668 #+begin_src ruby :var ar=(1 2 3)
1672 #+resname: task-arr-referent
1675 ** DONE global variable indicating default to vector output
1676 how about an alist... =org-babel-default-header-args= this may already
1677 exist... just execute the following and all source blocks will default
1680 #+begin_src emacs-lisp
1681 (setq org-babel-default-header-args '((:results . "vector")))
1684 ** DONE name named results if source block is named
1685 currently this isn't happening although it should be
1687 #+srcname: test-naming-named-source-blocks
1688 #+begin_src emacs-lisp
1692 #+resname: test-naming-named-source-blocks
1694 ** DONE (simple caching) check for named results before source blocks
1695 see the TODO comment in [[file:lisp/org-babel-ref.el::TODO%20This%20should%20explicitly%20look%20for%20resname%20lines%20before][org-babel-ref.el#org-babel-ref-resolve-reference]]
1696 ** DONE set =:results silent= when eval with prefix argument
1698 #+begin_src emacs-lisp
1701 ** DONE results-type header (vector/file) [3/3]
1702 In response to a point in Dan's email. We should allow the user to
1703 force scalar or vector results. This could be done with a header
1704 argument, and the default behavior could be controlled through a
1705 configuration variable.
1707 #+srcname: task-trivial-vector
1708 #+begin_src ruby :results replace vector
1715 since it doesn't make sense to turn a vector into a scalar, lets
1716 just add a two values...
1718 - vector :: forces the results to be a vector (potentially 1 dimensional)
1719 - file :: this throws an error if the result isn't a string, and
1720 tries to treat it as a path to a file.
1722 I'm just going to cram all of these into the =:results= header
1723 argument. Then if we allow multiple header arguments it should
1724 work out, for example one possible header argument string could be
1725 =:results replace vector file=, which would *replace* any existing
1726 results forcing the results into an org-mode table, and
1727 interpreting any strings as file paths.
1729 *** DONE multiple =:results= headers
1731 #+srcname: multiple-result-headers
1732 #+begin_src ruby :results replace silent
1738 *** DONE file result types
1739 When inserting into an org-mode buffer create a link with the path
1740 being the value, and optionally the display being the
1741 =file-name-nondirectory= if it exists.
1743 #+srcname: task-file-result
1744 #+begin_src python :results replace file
1749 [[something][something]]
1752 This will be useful because blocks like =ditaa= and =dot= can return
1753 the string path of their files, and can add =file= to their results
1756 *** DONE vector result types
1758 #+srcname: task-force-results
1759 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :results vector
1766 ** DONE results name
1767 In order to do this we will need to start naming our results.
1768 Since the source blocks are named with =#+srcname:= lines we can
1769 name results with =#+resname:= lines (if the source block has no
1770 name then no name is given to the =#+resname:= line on creation,
1771 otherwise the name of the source block is used).
1773 This will have the additional benefit of allowing results and
1774 source blocks to be located in different places in a buffer (and
1775 eventually in different buffers entirely).
1777 #+srcname: developing-resnames
1778 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :results silent
1782 Once source blocks are able to find their own =#+resname:= lines
1785 #+srcname: sbe-w-new-results
1786 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :results replace
1787 (sbe "developing-resnames")
1793 *** TODO change the results insertion functions to use these lines
1795 *** TODO teach references to resolve =#+resname= lines.
1797 ** DONE org-babel tests org-babel [1/1]
1798 since we are accumulating this nice collection of source-code blocks
1799 in the sandbox section we should make use of them as unit tests.
1800 What's more, we should be able to actually use org-babel to run these
1803 We would just need to cycle over every source code block under the
1804 sandbox, run it, and assert that the return value is equal to what we
1807 I have the feeling that this should be possible using only org-babel
1808 functions with minimal or no additional elisp. It would be very cool
1809 for org-babel to be able to test itself.
1811 This is now done, see [[* Tests]].
1813 *** DEFERRED org-babel assertions (may not be necessary)
1814 These could be used to make assertions about the results of a
1815 source-code block. If the assertion fails then the point could be
1816 moved to the block, and error messages and highlighting etc... could
1819 ** DONE make C-c C-c work anywhere within source code block?
1820 This seems like it would be nice to me, but perhaps it would be
1821 inefficient or ugly in implementation? I suppose you could search
1822 forward, and if you find #+end_src before you find #+begin_src,
1823 then you're inside one. [DED]
1825 Agreed, I think inside of the =#+srcname: line= would be useful as
1828 #+srcname: testing-out-cc
1829 #+begin_src emacs-lisp
1833 ** DONE integration with org tables
1834 We should make it easy to call org-babel source blocks from org-mode
1835 table formulas. This is practical now that it is possible to pass
1836 arguments to org-babel source blocks.
1838 See the related [[* (sandbox) integration w/org tables][sandbox]] header for tests/examples.
1840 *** digging in org-table.el
1841 In the past [[file:~/src/org/lisp/org-table.el::org%20table%20el%20The%20table%20editor%20for%20Org%20mode][org-table.el]] has proven difficult to work with.
1843 Should be a hook in [[file:~/src/org/lisp/org-table.el::defun%20org%20table%20eval%20formula%20optional%20arg%20equation][org-table-eval-formula]].
1845 Looks like I need to change this [[file:~/src/org/lisp/org-table.el::if%20lispp][if statement]] (line 2239) into a cond
1848 ** DONE source blocks as functions
1850 Allow source code blocks to be called like functions, with arguments
1851 specified. We are already able to call a source-code block and assign
1852 it's return result to a variable. This would just add the ability to
1853 specify the values of the arguments to the source code block assuming
1854 any exist. For an example see
1856 When a variable appears in a header argument, how do we differentiate
1857 between it's value being a reference or a literal value? I guess this
1858 could work just like a programming language. If it's escaped or in
1859 quotes, then we count it as a literal, otherwise we try to look it up
1862 ** DONE folding of code blocks? [2/2]
1863 [DED] In similar way to using outline-minor-mode for folding function
1864 bodies, can we fold code blocks? #+begin whatever statements are
1865 pretty ugly, and in any case when you're thinking about the overall
1866 game plan you don't necessarily want to see the code for each Step.
1868 *** DONE folding of source code block
1869 Sounds good, and wasn't too hard to implement. Code blocks should
1870 now be fold-able in the same manner as headlines (by pressing TAB
1873 *** REJECTED folding of results
1874 So, lets do a three-stage tab cycle... First fold the src block,
1875 then fold the results, then unfold.
1877 There's no way to tell if the results are a table or not w/o
1878 actually executing the block which would be too expensive of an
1881 ** DONE selective export of text, code, figures
1882 [DED] The org-babel buffer contains everything (code, headings and
1883 notes/prose describing what you're up to, textual/numeric/graphical
1884 code output, etc). However on export to html / LaTeX one might want
1885 to include only a subset of that content. For example you might
1886 want to create a presentation of what you've done which omits the
1889 [EMS] So I think this should be implemented as a property which can
1890 be set globally or on the outline header level (I need to review
1891 the mechanics of org-mode properties). And then as a source block
1892 header argument which will apply only to a specific source code
1893 block. A header argument of =:export= with values of
1895 - =code= :: just show the code in the source code block
1896 - =none= :: don't show the code or the results of the evaluation
1897 - =results= :: just show the results of the code evaluation (don't
1898 show the actual code)
1899 - =both= :: show both the source code, and the results
1901 this will be done in [[* (sandbox) selective export][(sandbox) selective export]].
1903 ** DONE a header argument specifying silent evaluation (no output)
1904 This would be useful across all types of source block. Currently
1905 there is a =:replace t= option to control output, this could be
1906 generalized to an =:output= option which could take the following
1907 options (maybe more)
1909 - =t= :: this would be the default, and would simply insert the
1910 results after the source block
1911 - =replace= :: to replace any results which may already be there
1912 - =silent= :: this would inhibit any insertion of the results
1914 This is now implemented see the example in the [[* silent evaluation][sandbox]]
1916 ** DONE assign variables from tables in R
1917 This is now working (see [[* (sandbox table) R][(sandbox-table)-R]]). Although it's not that
1918 impressive until we are able to print table results from R.
1920 ** DONE insert 2-D R results as tables
1921 everything is working but R and shell
1927 This has already been tackled by Dan in [[file:existing_tools/org-R.el::defconst%20org%20R%20write%20org%20table%20def][org-R:check-dimensions]]. The
1928 functions there should be useful in combination with [[http://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/R-data.html#Export-to-text-files][R-export-to-csv]]
1929 as a means of converting multidimensional R objects to emacs lisp.
1931 It may be as simple as first checking if the data is multidimensional,
1932 and then, if so using =write= to write the data out to a temporary
1933 file from which emacs can read the data in using =org-table-import=.
1935 Looking into this further, is seems that there is no such thing as a
1936 scalar in R [[http://tolstoy.newcastle.edu.au/R/help/03a/3733.html][R-scalar-vs-vector]] In that light I am not sure how to
1937 deal with trivial vectors (scalars) in R. I'm tempted to just treat
1938 them as vectors, but then that would lead to a proliferation of
1939 trivial 1-cell tables...
1941 ** DONE allow variable initialization from source blocks
1942 Currently it is possible to initialize a variable from an org-mode
1943 table with a block argument like =table=sandbox= (note that the
1944 variable doesn't have to named =table=) as in the following example
1950 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :var table=sandbox :results replace
1951 (message (format "table = %S" table))
1954 : "table = ((1 2 3) (4 \"schulte\" 6))"
1956 It would be good to allow initialization of variables from the results
1957 of other source blocks in the same manner. This would probably
1958 require the addition of =#+SRCNAME: example= lines for the naming of
1959 source blocks, also the =table=sandbox= syntax may have to be expanded
1960 to specify whether the target is a source code block or a table
1961 (alternately we could just match the first one with the given name
1962 whether it's a table or a source code block).
1964 At least initially I'll try to implement this so that there is no need
1965 to specify whether the reference is to a table or a source-code block.
1966 That seems to be simpler both in terms of use and implementation.
1968 This is now working for emacs-lisp, ruby and python (and mixtures of
1969 the three) source blocks. See the examples in the [[* (sandbox) referencing other source blocks][sandbox]].
1971 This is currently working only with emacs lisp as in the following
1972 example in the [[* emacs lisp source reference][emacs lisp source reference]].
1975 ** TODO Add languages [1/6]
1976 I'm sure there are many more that aren't listed here. Please add
1977 them, and bubble any that you particularly care about up to the top.
1979 Any new language should be implemented in a org-babel-lang.el file.
1980 Follow the pattern set by [[file:lisp/org-babel-script.el][org-babel-script.el]], [[file:lisp/org-babel-shell.el][org-babel-shell.el]] and
1981 [[file:lisp/org-babel-R.el][org-babel-R.el]].
1984 This could probably be added to [[file:lisp/org-babel-script.el][org-babel-script.el]]
1989 (see [[* file result types][file result types]])
1991 #+srcname: implementing-ditaa
1992 #+begin_src ditaa :results replace :file blue.png :cmdline -r
2002 #+resname: implementing-ditaa
2003 [[file:blue.png][blue.png]]
2006 (see [[* file result types][file result types]])
2008 - a =file= header argument
2009 - a =cmdline= header argument
2011 - scalar variables should be replaced in the body of the gnuplot code
2012 - vector variables should be exported to tab-separated files, and
2013 the variable names should be replaced with the path to the files
2015 #+PLOT: title:"Citas" ind:1 deps:(3) type:2d with:histograms set:"yrange [0:]"
2016 #+TBLNAME: gnuplot-data
2017 | independent var | first dependent var | second dependent var |
2018 |-----------------+---------------------+----------------------|
2019 | 0.1 | 0.425 | 0.375 |
2020 | 0.2 | 0.3125 | 0.3375 |
2021 | 0.3 | 0.24999993 | 0.28333338 |
2022 | 0.4 | 0.275 | 0.28125 |
2023 | 0.5 | 0.26 | 0.27 |
2024 | 0.6 | 0.25833338 | 0.24999993 |
2025 | 0.7 | 0.24642845 | 0.23928553 |
2026 | 0.8 | 0.23125 | 0.2375 |
2027 | 0.9 | 0.23333323 | 0.2333332 |
2028 | 1 | 0.2225 | 0.22 |
2029 | 1.1 | 0.20909075 | 0.22272708 |
2030 | 1.2 | 0.19999998 | 0.21458333 |
2031 | 1.3 | 0.19615368 | 0.21730748 |
2033 #+srcname: implementing-gnuplot
2034 #+begin_src gnuplot :var data=gnuplot-data
2035 set title "Implementing Gnuplot"
2036 plot "data" using 1:2 with lines
2040 (see [[* file result types][file result types]])
2043 (see [[* file result types][file result types]])
2047 ** TODO prompt characters appearing in output with R
2048 #+begin_src R :session *R* :results output
2057 ** TODO o-b-execute-subtree overwrites heading when subtree is folded
2059 Try M-x org-babel-execute-subtree with the subtree folded and
2060 point at the beginning of the heading line.
2065 ** TODO Allow source blocks to be recognised when #+ are not first characters on the line
2066 I think Carsten has recently altered the core so that #+ can have
2067 preceding whitespace, at least for literal/code examples. org-babel
2068 should support this.
2070 ** TODO non-orgtbl formatted lists
2073 #+srcname: this-doesn't-match-orgtbl
2074 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :results replace
2075 '((:results . "replace"))
2078 #+resname: this-doesn't-match-orgtbl
2080 ** TODO collapsing consecutive newlines in string output
2082 #+srcname: multi-line-string-output
2083 #+begin_src ruby :results output
2084 "the first line ends here
2087 and this is the second one
2092 #+resname: multi-line-string-output
2094 ** PROPOSED external shell execution can't isolate return values
2095 I have no idea how to do this as of yet. The result is that when
2096 shell functions are run w/o a session there is no difference between
2097 the =output= and =value= result arguments.
2099 Yea, I don't know how to do this either. I searched extensively on
2100 how to isolate the *last* output of a series of shell commands (see
2101 [[* last command for
2102 shells][last command for shells]]). The results of the search were basically
2103 that it was not possible (or at least not accomplish-able with a
2104 reasonable amount of effort).
2106 That fact combined with the tenancy to all ways use standard out in
2107 shell scripts led me to treat these two options (=output= and =value=)
2108 as identical in shell evaluation. Not ideal but maybe good enough for
2111 In the `results' branch I've changed this so that they're not quite
2112 identical: output results in raw stdout contents, whereas value
2113 converts it to elisp, perhaps to a table if it looks tabular. This is
2114 the same for the other languages. [Dan]
2116 ** TODO are the org-babel-trim s necessary?
2117 at the end of e.g. org-babel-R-evaluate, org-babel-python-evaluate, but
2118 not org-babel-ruby-evaluate
2119 ** TODO elisp reference fails for literal number
2120 #+srcname: elisp-test(a=4)
2121 #+begin_src emacs-lisp
2124 ** TODO use new merge function [[file:lisp/org-babel-ref.el::t%20nil%20org%20combine%20plists%20args%20nil][here]]?
2125 And at other occurrences of org-combine-plists?
2126 ** TODO LoB: with output to buffer, not working in buffers other than library-of-babel.org
2127 I haven't fixed this yet. org-babel-ref-resolve-reference moves
2128 point around, inside a save-excursion. Somehow when it comes to
2129 inserting the results (after possible further recursive calls to
2130 org-babel-ref-resolve-reference), point hasn't gone back to the
2132 ** TODO creeping blank lines
2133 There's still inappropriate addition of blank lines in some circumstances. E.g.
2139 Compare the results of
2140 #+lob: python-add(a=5, b=17)
2142 #+resname: python-add(a=5, b=17)
2144 --------------------------------
2152 ---------------------
2154 Hmm, it's a bit confusing. I think it's to do with the fact that
2155 LoB removes the entire (#+resname and result) and starts from
2156 scratch, whereas #+begin_src only removes the result. I haven't
2157 worked out what the correct fix is yet.
2158 ** DEFERRED weird escaped characters in shell prompt break shell evaluation
2159 E.g. this doesn't work. Should the shell sessions set a sane prompt
2160 when they start up? Or is it a question of altering
2161 comint-prompt-regexp? Or altering org-babel regexps?
2164 black=30 ; red=31 ; green=32 ; yellow=33 ; blue=34 ; magenta=35 ; cyan=36 ; white=37
2167 export PS1="\[\033[${prompt_col}m\]\w${prompt_char} \[\033[0m\]"
2170 I just pushed a good amount of changes, could you see if your shell
2171 problems still exist?
2173 The problem's still there. Specifically, aIui, at [[file:lisp/langs/org-babel-sh.el::raw%20org%20babel%20comint%20with%20output%20buffer%20org%20babel%20sh%20eoe%20output%20nil%20insert%20full%20body%20comint%20send%20input%20nil%20t][this line]] of
2174 org-babel-sh.el, raw gets the value
2176 ("" "
\e[0m Sun Jun 14 19:26:24 EDT 2009\n" "
\e[0m org_babel_sh_eoe\n" "
\e[0m ")
2178 and therefore (member org-babel-sh-eoe-output ...) fails
2180 I think that `comint-prompt-regexp' needs to be altered to match
2181 the shell prompt. This shouldn't be too difficult to do by hand,
2182 using the `regexp-builder' command and should probably be part of
2183 the user's regular emacs init. I can't think of a way for us to
2184 set this automatically, and we are SOL without a regexp to match
2187 ** DONE cursor movement when evaluating source blocks
2188 E.g. the pie chart example. Despite the save-window-excursion in
2189 org-babel-execute:R. (I never learned how to do this properly: org-R
2190 jumps all over the place...)
2192 I don't see this now [ded]
2194 ** DONE LoB: calls fail if reference has single character name
2195 commit 21d058869df1ff23f4f8cc26f63045ac9c0190e2
2196 **** This doesn't work
2197 #+lob: R-plot(data=X)
2216 #+lob: R-plot(data=XX)
2218 ** DONE make :results replace the default?
2219 I'm tending to think that appending results to pre-existing results
2220 creates mess, and that the cleaner `replace' option should be the
2221 default. E.g. when a source block creates an image, we would want
2222 that to be updated, rather than have a new one be added.
2226 ** DONE ruby evaluation not working under ubuntu emacs 23
2227 With emacs 23.0.91.1 on ubuntu, for C-h f run-ruby I have the
2228 following, which seems to conflict with [[file:lisp/langs/org-babel-ruby.el::let%20session%20buffer%20save%20window%20excursion%20run%20ruby%20nil%20session%20current%20buffer][this line]] in org-babel-ruby.el.
2231 run-ruby is an interactive compiled Lisp function.
2235 Run an inferior Ruby process, input and output via buffer *ruby*.
2236 If there is a process already running in `*ruby*', switch to that buffer.
2237 With argument, allows you to edit the command line (default is value
2238 of `ruby-program-name'). Runs the hooks `inferior-ruby-mode-hook'
2239 (after the `comint-mode-hook' is run).
2240 (Type C-h m in the process buffer for a list of commands.)
2243 So, I may have a non-standard inf-ruby.el. Here's my version of
2247 run-ruby is an interactive Lisp function in `inf-ruby.el'.
2249 (run-ruby &optional COMMAND NAME)
2251 Run an inferior Ruby process, input and output via buffer *ruby*.
2252 If there is a process already running in `*ruby*', switch to that buffer.
2253 With argument, allows you to edit the command line (default is value
2254 of `ruby-program-name'). Runs the hooks `inferior-ruby-mode-hook'
2255 (after the `comint-mode-hook' is run).
2256 (Type C-h m in the process buffer for a list of commands.)
2259 It seems we could either bundle my version of inf-ruby.el (as it's
2260 the newest). Or we could change the use of `run-ruby' so that it
2261 is robust across multiple distributions. I think I'd prefer the
2262 former, unless the older version of inf-ruby is actually bundled
2263 with emacs, in which case maybe we should go out of our way to
2264 support it. Thoughts?
2266 I think for now I'll just include the latest [[file:util/inf-ruby.el][inf-ruby.el]] in the
2267 newly created utility directory. I doubt anyone would have a
2268 problem using the latest version of this file.
2269 ** DONE test failing forcing vector results with =test-forced-vector-results= ruby code block
2270 Note that this only seems to happen the *second* time the test table
2273 #+srcname: bug-trivial-vector
2274 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :results vector silent
2278 #+srcname: bug-forced-vector-results
2279 #+begin_src ruby :var triv=test-trivial-vector :results silent
2283 mysteriously this seems to be fixed...
2284 ** DONE defunct R sessions
2285 Sometimes an old R session will turn defunct, and newly inserted code
2286 will not be evaluated (leading to a hang).
2288 This seems to be fixed by using `inferior-ess-send-input' rather than `comint-send-input'.
2289 ** DONE ruby fails on first call to non-default session
2291 #+srcname: bug-new-session
2292 #+begin_src ruby :session is-new
2296 ** DONE when reading results from =#+resname= line
2298 Errors when trying to read from resname lines.
2300 #+resname: bug-in-resname
2303 #+srcname: bug-in-resname-reader
2304 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :var buggy=bug-in-resname() :results silent
2308 ** DONE R-code broke on "org-babel" rename
2310 #+srcname: bug-R-babels
2315 ** DONE error on trivial R results
2317 So I know it's generally not a good idea to squash error without
2318 handling them, but in this case the error almost always means that
2319 there was no file contents to be read by =org-table-import=, so I
2322 #+srcname: bug-trivial-r1
2323 #+begin_src R :results replace
2324 pie(c(1, 2, 3), labels = c(1, 2, 3))
2327 #+srcname: bug-trivial-r2
2328 #+begin_src R :results replace
2332 #+resname: bug-trivial-r2
2335 #+srcname: bug-trivial-r3
2336 #+begin_src R :results replace
2340 #+resname: bug-trivial-r3
2345 ** DONE ruby new variable creation (multi-line ruby blocks)
2346 Actually it looks like we were dropping all but the last line.
2348 #+srcname: multi-line-ruby-test
2349 #+begin_src ruby :var table=bug-numerical-table :results replace
2351 table.each{|n| total += n}
2358 ** DONE R code execution seems to choke on certain inputs
2359 Currently the R code seems to work on vertical (but not landscape)
2362 #+srcname: little-fake
2363 #+begin_src emacs-lisp
2368 #+begin_src R :var num=little-fake
2375 #+srcname: set-debug-on-error
2376 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :results silent
2377 (setq debug-on-error t)
2380 #+srcname: bug-numerical-table
2381 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :results silent
2388 #+srcname: bug-R-number-evaluation
2389 #+begin_src R :var table=bug-numerical-table
2398 #+tblname: bug-vert-table
2403 #+srcname: bug-R-vertical-table
2404 #+begin_src R :var table=bug-vert-table :results silent
2408 ** DONE org bug/request: prevent certain org behaviour within code blocks
2409 E.g. [[]] gets recognised as a link (when there's text inside the
2410 brackets). This is bad for R code at least, and more generally
2411 could be argued to be inappropriate. Is it difficult to get org to
2412 ignore text in code blocks? [DED]
2414 I believe Carsten addressed this recently on the mailing list with
2415 the comment that it was indeed a difficult issue. I believe this
2416 may be one area where we could wait for an upstream (org-mode) fix.
2418 [Dan] Carsten has fixed this now in the core.
2420 ** DONE with :results replace, non-table output doesn't replace table output
2421 And vice versa. E.g. Try this first with table and then with len(table) [DED]
2422 #+begin_src python :var table=sandbox :results replace
2427 | 4 | "schulte" | 6 |
2430 Yes, this is certainly a problem. I fear that if we begin replacing
2431 anything immediately following a source block (regardless of whether
2432 it matches the type of our current results) we may accidentally delete
2433 hand written portions of the user's org-mode buffer.
2435 I think that the best solution here would be to actually start
2436 labeling results with a line that looks something like...
2440 This would have a couple of benefits...
2441 1) we wouldn't have to worry about possibly deleting non-results
2442 (which is currently an issue)
2443 2) we could reliably replace results even if there are different types
2444 3) we could reference the results of a source-code block in variable
2445 definitions, which would be useful if for example we don't wish to
2446 re-run a source-block every time because it is long-running.
2448 Thoughts? If no-one objects, I believe I will implement the labeling
2451 ** DONE extra quotes for nested string
2452 Well R appears to be reading the tables without issue...
2454 these *should* be quoted
2456 #+begin_src sh :results replace
2461 | "README.markdown" |
2464 | "existing_tools" |
2468 | "test-export.html" |
2469 | "test-export.org" |
2471 #+srcname: test-quotes
2472 #+begin_src ruby :var tab=ls
2478 #+srcname: test-quotes
2479 #+begin_src R :var tab=ls
2485 ** DONE simple ruby arrays not working
2487 As an example eval the following. Adding a line to test
2489 #+tblname: simple-ruby-array
2492 #+srcname: ruby-array-test
2493 #+begin_src ruby :var ar = simple-ruby-array :results silent
2497 ** DONE space trailing language name
2498 fix regexp so it works when there's a space trailing the language name
2500 #+srcname: test-trailing-space
2505 ** DONE Args out of range error
2507 The following block resulted in the error below [DED]. It ran without
2508 error directly in the shell.
2511 for platf in ill aff ; do
2512 for pop in CEU YRI ASI ; do
2513 rm -f $platf/hapmap-genos-$pop-all $platf/hapmap-rs-all
2514 cat $platf/hapmap-genos-$pop-* > $platf/hapmap-genos-$pop-all
2515 cat $platf/hapmap-rs-* > $platf/hapmap-rs-all
2520 executing source block with sh...
2521 finished executing source block
2522 string-equal: Args out of range: "", -1, 0
2524 the error =string-equal: Args out of range: "", -1, 0= looks like what
2525 used to be output when the block returned an empty results string.
2526 This should be fixed in the current version, you should now see the
2527 following message =no result returned by source block=.
2529 ** DONE ruby arrays not recognized as such
2531 Something is wrong in [[file:lisp/org-babel-script.el]] related to the
2532 recognition of ruby arrays as such.
2534 #+begin_src ruby :results replace
2540 #+begin_src python :results replace
2552 Evaluate all the cells in this table for a comprehensive test of the
2553 org-babel functionality.
2555 *Note*: if you have customized =org-babel-default-header-args= then some
2556 of these tests may fail.
2558 #+TBLNAME: org-babel-tests
2559 | functionality | block | arg | expected | results | pass |
2560 |-------------------------+----------------------------+-----+-------------+-------------+------|
2561 | basic evaluation | | | | | pass |
2562 |-------------------------+----------------------------+-----+-------------+-------------+------|
2563 | emacs lisp | basic-elisp | | 5 | 5 | pass |
2564 | shell | basic-shell | | 6 | 6 | pass |
2565 | ruby | basic-ruby | | org-babel | org-babel | pass |
2566 | python | basic-python | | hello world | hello world | pass |
2567 | R | basic-R | | 13 | 13 | pass |
2568 |-------------------------+----------------------------+-----+-------------+-------------+------|
2569 | tables | | | | | pass |
2570 |-------------------------+----------------------------+-----+-------------+-------------+------|
2571 | emacs lisp | table-elisp | | 3 | 3 | pass |
2572 | ruby | table-ruby | | 1-2-3 | 1-2-3 | pass |
2573 | python | table-python | | 5 | 5 | pass |
2574 | R | table-R | | 3.5 | 3.5 | pass |
2575 |-------------------------+----------------------------+-----+-------------+-------------+------|
2576 | source block references | | | | | pass |
2577 |-------------------------+----------------------------+-----+-------------+-------------+------|
2578 | all languages | chained-ref-last | | Array | Array | pass |
2579 |-------------------------+----------------------------+-----+-------------+-------------+------|
2580 | source block functions | | | | | pass |
2581 |-------------------------+----------------------------+-----+-------------+-------------+------|
2582 | emacs lisp | defun-fibb | | fibbd | fibbd | pass |
2583 | run over | Fibonacci | 0 | 1 | 1 | pass |
2584 | a | Fibonacci | 1 | 1 | 1 | pass |
2585 | variety | Fibonacci | 2 | 2 | 2 | pass |
2586 | of | Fibonacci | 3 | 3 | 3 | pass |
2587 | different | Fibonacci | 4 | 5 | 5 | pass |
2588 | arguments | Fibonacci | 5 | 8 | 8 | pass |
2589 |-------------------------+----------------------------+-----+-------------+-------------+------|
2590 | bugs and tasks | | | | | pass |
2591 |-------------------------+----------------------------+-----+-------------+-------------+------|
2592 | simple ruby arrays | ruby-array-test | | 3 | 3 | pass |
2593 | R number evaluation | bug-R-number-evaluation | | 2 | 2 | pass |
2594 | multi-line ruby blocks | multi-line-ruby-test | | 2 | 2 | pass |
2595 | forcing vector results | test-forced-vector-results | | Array | Array | pass |
2596 |-------------------------+----------------------------+-----+-------------+-------------+------|
2597 | sessions | | | | | pass |
2598 |-------------------------+----------------------------+-----+-------------+-------------+------|
2599 | set ruby session | set-ruby-session-var | | :set | :set | pass |
2600 | get from ruby session | get-ruby-session-var | | 3 | 3 | pass |
2601 | set python session | set-python-session-var | | set | set | pass |
2602 | get from python session | get-python-session-var | | 4 | 4 | pass |
2603 | set R session | set-R-session-var | | set | set | pass |
2604 | get from R session | get-R-session-var | | 5 | 5 | pass |
2605 #+TBLFM: $5='(if (= (length $3) 1) (progn (message (format "running %S" '(sbe $2 (n $3)))) (sbe $2 (n $3))) (sbe $2))::$6='(if (string= $4 $5) "pass" (format "expected %S but was %S" $4 $5))
2606 #+TBLFM: $5=""::$6=""
2608 The second line (followed by replacing '[]' with '') can be used to blank out the table results, in the absence of a better method.
2612 #+srcname: basic-elisp
2613 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :results silent
2618 #+srcname: basic-shell
2619 #+begin_src sh :results silent
2624 #+srcname: date-simple
2625 #+begin_src sh :results silent
2629 #+srcname: basic-ruby
2630 #+begin_src ruby :results silent
2635 #+srcname: basic-python
2636 #+begin_src python :results silent
2642 #+begin_src R :results silent
2650 #+tblname: test-table
2654 #+srcname: table-elisp
2655 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :results silent :var table=test-table
2656 (length (car table))
2660 #+srcname: table-ruby
2661 #+begin_src ruby :results silent :var table=test-table
2662 table.first.join("-")
2666 #+srcname: table-python
2667 #+begin_src python :var table=test-table
2673 #+begin_src R :var table=test-table
2680 Lets pass a references through all of our languages...
2682 Lets start by reversing the table from the previous examples
2684 #+srcname: chained-ref-first
2685 #+begin_src python :var table = test-table
2690 #+resname: chained-ref-first
2694 Take the first part of the list
2696 #+srcname: chained-ref-second
2697 #+begin_src R :var table = chained-ref-first
2701 #+resname: chained-ref-second
2705 Turn the numbers into string
2707 #+srcname: chained-ref-third
2708 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :var table = chained-ref-second
2709 (mapcar (lambda (el) (format "%S" el)) table)
2712 #+resname: chained-ref-third
2715 and Check that it is still a list
2717 #+srcname: chained-ref-last
2718 #+begin_src ruby :var table=chained-ref-third
2723 ** source blocks as functions
2725 #+srcname: defun-fibb
2726 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :results silent
2727 (defun fibbd (n) (if (< n 2) 1 (+ (fibbd (- n 1)) (fibbd (- n 2)))))
2731 #+srcname: fibonacci
2732 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :results silent :var n=7
2742 ** sbe tests (these don't seem to be working...)
2743 Testing the insertion of results into org-mode tables.
2745 #+srcname: multi-line-output
2746 #+begin_src ruby :results replace
2747 "the first line ends here
2750 and this is the second one
2756 : the first line ends here\n\n\n and this is the second one\n\neven a third
2758 #+srcname: multi-line-error
2759 #+begin_src ruby :results replace
2760 raise "oh nooooooooooo"
2766 | the first line ends here... | -:5: warning: parenthesize argument(s) for future version... |
2767 #+TBLFM: $1='(sbe "multi-line-output")::$2='(sbe "multi-line-error")
2769 ** forcing results types tests
2771 #+srcname: test-trivial-vector
2772 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :results vector silent
2776 #+srcname: test-forced-vector-results
2777 #+begin_src ruby :var triv=test-trivial-vector :results silent
2783 #+srcname: set-ruby-session-var
2784 #+begin_src ruby :session :results silent
2789 #+srcname: get-ruby-session-var
2790 #+begin_src ruby :session :results silent
2794 #+srcname: set-python-session-var
2795 #+begin_src python :session
2800 #+srcname: get-python-session-var
2801 #+begin_src python :session
2805 #+srcname: set-R-session-var
2806 #+begin_src R :session
2811 #+srcname: get-R-session-var
2812 #+begin_src R :session
2821 To run these examples evaluate [[file:lisp/org-babel-init.el][org-babel-init.el]]
2823 ** org-babel.el beginning functionality
2825 #+begin_src sh :results replace
2830 : Sun Jul 5 18:54:39 EDT 2009
2837 : Sun Jul 05 18:54:35 -0400 2009
2849 #+begin_src R :results replace
2859 hist(rgamma(20,3,3))
2864 ** org-babel plays with tables
2865 Alright, this should demonstrate both the ability of org-babel to read
2866 tables into a lisp source code block, and to then convert the results
2867 of the source code block into an org table. It's using the classic
2868 "lisp is elegant" demonstration transpose function. To try this
2871 1. evaluate [[file:lisp/org-babel-init.el]] to load org-babel and friends
2872 2. evaluate the transpose definition =\C-c\\C-c= on the beginning of
2874 3. evaluate the next source code block, this should read in the table
2875 because of the =:var table=previous=, then transpose the table, and
2876 finally it should insert the transposed table into the buffer
2877 immediately following the block
2881 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :results silent
2882 (defun transpose (table)
2883 (apply #'mapcar* #'list table))
2891 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :var table=sandbox :results replace
2896 #+begin_src emacs-lisp
2901 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
2905 #+begin_src ruby :var table=sandbox :results replace
2906 table.first.join(" - ")
2912 #+begin_src python :var table=sandbox
2917 #+begin_src ruby :var table=sandbox :results replace
2922 : [[1, 2, 3], [4, "schulte", 6]]
2926 | 4 | "schulte" | 6 |
2928 #+begin_src python :var table=sandbox :results replace
2934 | "__add__" | "__class__" | "__contains__" | "__delattr__" | "__delitem__" | "__delslice__" | "__doc__" | "__eq__" | "__format__" | "__ge__" | "__getattribute__" | "__getitem__" | "__getslice__" | "__gt__" | "__hash__" | "__iadd__" | "__imul__" | "__init__" | "__iter__" | "__le__" | "__len__" | "__lt__" | "__mul__" | "__ne__" | "__new__" | "__reduce__" | "__reduce_ex__" | "__repr__" | "__reversed__" | "__rmul__" | "__setattr__" | "__setitem__" | "__setslice__" | "__sizeof__" | "__str__" | "__subclasshook__" | "append" | "count" | "extend" | "index" | "insert" | "pop" | "remove" | "reverse" | "sort" |
2936 *** (sandbox table) R
2938 #+TBLNAME: sandbox_r
2942 #+begin_src R :results replace
2943 x <- c(rnorm(10, mean=-3, sd=1), rnorm(10, mean=3, sd=1))
2947 | -3.35473133869346 |
2949 | -3.32819924928633 |
2950 | -2.97310212756194 |
2951 | -2.09640758369576 |
2952 | -5.06054014378736 |
2953 | -2.20713700711221 |
2954 | -1.37618039712037 |
2955 | -1.95839385821742 |
2956 | -3.90407396475502 |
2957 | 2.51168071590226 |
2958 | 3.96753011570494 |
2959 | 3.31793212627865 |
2960 | 1.99829753972341 |
2961 | 4.00403686419829 |
2962 | 4.63723764452927 |
2963 | 3.94636744261313 |
2964 | 3.58355906547775 |
2965 | 3.01563442274226 |
2968 #+begin_src R var tabel=sandbox_r :results replace
2973 | 4 | "schulte" | 6 |
2976 Now shell commands are converted to tables using =org-table-import=
2977 and if these tables are non-trivial (i.e. have multiple elements) then
2978 they are imported as org-mode tables...
2980 #+begin_src sh :results replace
2984 | "total" | 208 | "" | "" | "" | "" | "" | "" |
2985 | "-rw-r--r--" | 1 | "dan" | "dan" | 57 | 2009 | 15 | "block" |
2986 | "-rw-r--r--" | 1 | "dan" | "dan" | 35147 | 2009 | 15 | "COPYING" |
2987 | "-rw-r--r--" | 1 | "dan" | "dan" | 722 | 2009 | 18 | "examples.org" |
2988 | "drwxr-xr-x" | 4 | "dan" | "dan" | 4096 | 2009 | 19 | "existing_tools" |
2989 | "-rw-r--r--" | 1 | "dan" | "dan" | 2207 | 2009 | 14 | "intro.org" |
2990 | "drwxr-xr-x" | 2 | "dan" | "dan" | 4096 | 2009 | 18 | "org-babel" |
2991 | "-rw-r--r--" | 1 | "dan" | "dan" | 277 | 2009 | 20 | "README.markdown" |
2992 | "-rw-r--r--" | 1 | "dan" | "dan" | 11837 | 2009 | 18 | "rorg.html" |
2993 | "-rw-r--r--" | 1 | "dan" | "dan" | 61829 | 2009 | 19 | "#rorg.org#" |
2994 | "-rw-r--r--" | 1 | "dan" | "dan" | 60190 | 2009 | 19 | "rorg.org" |
2995 | "-rw-r--r--" | 1 | "dan" | "dan" | 972 | 2009 | 11 | "test-export.org" |
2998 ** silent evaluation
3006 #+begin_src ruby :results silent
3010 #+begin_src ruby :results replace
3017 ** (sandbox) referencing other source blocks
3018 Doing this in emacs-lisp first because it's trivial to convert
3019 emacs-lisp results to and from emacs-lisp.
3021 *** emacs lisp source reference
3022 This first example performs a calculation in the first source block
3023 named =top=, the results of this calculation are then saved into the
3024 variable =first= by the header argument =:var first=top=, and it is
3025 used in the calculations of the second source block.
3028 #+begin_src emacs-lisp
3032 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :var first=top :results replace
3038 This example is the same as the previous only the variable being
3039 passed through is a table rather than a number.
3041 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :results silent
3042 (defun transpose (table)
3043 (apply #'mapcar* #'list table))
3046 #+TBLNAME: top_table
3050 #+SRCNAME: second_src_example
3051 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :var table=top_table
3055 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :var table=second_src_example :results replace
3060 | 4 | "schulte" | 6 |
3062 Now working for ruby
3069 #+begin_src ruby :var other=start :results replace
3075 #+SRCNAME: start_two
3080 #+begin_src python :var another=start_two :results replace
3085 Since all variables are converted into Emacs Lisp it is no problem to
3086 reference variables specified in another language.
3088 #+SRCNAME: ruby-block
3093 #+SRCNAME: lisp_block
3094 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :var ruby-variable=ruby-block
3098 #+begin_src python :var lisp_var=lisp_block
3107 #+begin_src R :results replace
3114 #+begin_src R :var other=first_r :results replace
3121 ** (sandbox) selective export
3123 For exportation tests and examples see (including exportation of
3124 inline source code blocks) [[file:test-export.org]]
3127 ** (sandbox) source blocks as functions
3130 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :results silent
3135 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :var n=default :results replace
3141 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :var result=triple(n=3, m=98) :results replace
3147 The following just demonstrates the ability to assign variables to
3148 literal values, which was not implemented until recently.
3150 #+begin_src ruby :var num="eric" :results replace
3157 ** (sandbox) inline source blocks
3159 This is an inline source code block src_ruby{1 + 6}. And another
3160 source block with text output src_emacs-lisp{"eric"}.
3162 This is an inline source code block with header
3163 arguments. src_ruby[:var n=fibbd( n = 0 )]{n}
3166 ** (sandbox) integration w/org tables
3168 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :results silent
3169 (defun fibbd (n) (if (< n 2) 1 (+ (fibbd (- n 1)) (fibbd (- n 2)))))
3173 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :var n=4 :results silent
3177 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :results silent
3178 (mapcar #'fibbd '(0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8))
3181 Something is not working here. The function `sbe ' works fine when
3182 called from outside of the table (see the source block below), but
3183 produces an error when called from inside the table. I think there
3184 must be some narrowing going on during intra-table emacs-lisp
3187 | original | fibbd |
3188 |----------+-------|
3199 #+TBLFM: $2='(sbe "fibbd" (n $1))
3203 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :results silent
3204 (sbe 'fibbd (n "8"))
3209 LocalWords: DBlocks dblocks org-babel el eric fontification