Getting Started

Starting a notebook

To start a notebook, type in a terminal:

jupyter notebook

Your default webbrowser should open with a list of the files in the current directory. Choose New->metacall_kernel to open a new notebook of type metacall_kernel.

You can also start a nootbook directly from the commandline using our launcher script:

python3 -m metacall_jupyter.launcher

Closing a notebook

To close the notebook, choose:

File -> Close and Halt

from the menu.

Note that simply closing the browser tab does not close the notebook or the running MetaCall Polyglot REPL subprocess(es) behind it. You can reopen the tab by clicking on the name of your notebook (next to the then green icon).

It is also possible to kill the MetaCall REPL subprocess(es) running behind the notebook by clicking on the Shutdown button in the running notebook section of your Jupyter session.

You can optionally use the programmatic way to shutdown by pushing it in the cell and executing it:

$shutdown

It will gracefully kill the running subprocess and you can safely exit from the notebook.

Running a notebook

MetaCall Jupyter kernel supports a few commands that allows you to interact with the MetaCall Polyglot REPL to load and execute code in different languages. The other commands and magics allow you to load foreign functions on the language, interact with the shell and inspect the meta-object protocol.

You can check-out all the available functionalities using the $help command on the cell and execute it. You will get the following output:

1. ! : Run a Shell Command on the MetaCall Jupyter Kernel
2. $shutdown : Shutdown the MetaCall Jupyter Kernel
3. $inspect : Inspects the MetaCall to check all loaded functions
4. $loadfile: Loads a file onto the MetaCall which can be evaluated
5. $newfile: Creates a new file and appends the code mentioned below
6. %repl <tag>: Switch from different REPL (available tags: node, py)
7. >lang: Execute scripts using the MetaCall exec by saving them in a temporary file (available languages: python, javascript)
8. $loadcell <tag>: Loads a function onto the MetaCall to be evaluated
9. $help: Check all the commands and tags you can use while accessing the MetaCall Kernel
10. $available: Checks all the available REPLs on the Kernel

You can load a REPL, by just passing %repl <tag> where you can replace <tag> with the languages available. You can check-out the available languages through the $available command.

Exporting the notebook

You can export a reproducible copy of the Notebook by choosing:

File -> Download as

You can download the Notebook in a Notebook (.ipynb), PDF, HTML, Markdown and more formats easily. Make sure to save and checkpoint to ensure a reproducible copy on your own local machine:

File -> Save and Checkpoint