use ipython-cells package as the backend

[astier]

There is a package ipython-cells which enhances ipython with commands like %cell_run cell_name to run cells with the specified name directly from ipython. The cell-name is specified via comments in the code similar how you do it. Take a look at the link above for better explanation. My proposal would be to use this as the backend to define and run cells.

Basically you would define cells as required by the package ipython-cells. Commands like :IPythonCellExecuteCell would simply search for the magic comment with the cell-name. Then it could just send via slime to ipython the command cell_run cell-name to execute the cell.

This would have the following benefits:

• %cell_run cell-name is more expressive than %paste -q. you immediatly can see in the screen and in the ipython-history which cells were executed
• brings all the advantages which the packages ipython-cells has with it. people can now not only execute cells from vim with your commands but also directly from ipython if they want so. they now also can execute multiple cells at once from ipython (look at example in the link)
• this would give new possibilities to your plugin for new more advanced commands like to execute multiple cells
• probably this would simplify your plugin since the only thing you need to do is find the magic comment with the cell-name and send the command. i imagine you could get rid of the xsel/xclip dependancy

[hanschen]

That's a cool idea (I didn't know about ipython-cells before), but I think I want to keep vim-ipython-cell as it currently is with support for Vim marks and no dependency on ipython packages (although you're right that this would get rid of xsel/xclip dependency).

So instead, I encourage you to develop a separate Vim plugin that addresses this need. If you're new to Vim plugin development you could use this plugin as a starting point, the actual functionality should be relatively straightforward to implement in Python.

[astier]

Hi. Thanks for the advice. Although my idea has some benefits I think there are also reasons against it. Your approach to define cells which are not just bound to ipython is more generic. Creating cell-objects would be cool such that operations like dac (delete around cell) would be possible. But this are just ideas. Right now I have no time. Need to focus on studies. Lost already to much time tweaking vim haha