ENH Start a new Ipython kernel from vim

[luispedro]

This is a bit hacky, but it works well enough:

1. generate a new random ID
2. use the subprocess to start a completely new IPython kernel process
   with that ID. This may not even be the same Python version that vim
   is running (this is a feature, not a bug)
3. connect to this kernel

Currently, the kernel is automatically killed at exit.

[bfredl]

Another also somewhat hacky solution is

from IPython.core.application import BaseIPythonApplication
from IPython.consoleapp import IPythonConsoleApp
class IPythonVimApp(BaseIPythonApplication, IPythonConsoleApp):
    def initialize(self, argv):
        super(IPythonVimApp, self).initialize(argv)
        IPythonConsoleApp.initialize(self, argv)
app = IPythonVimApp()
app.initialize([]) # or ['--profile', 'julia'] or ['--existing']
km = app.kernel_manager
kc = app.kernel_client

This has the benefit that it accepts the same arguments as ipython console/notebook <argv> (to start non-python kernels for instance) and it can interrupt and restart the kernel using the kernel_manager interface, not sure how backward (or forward) compatible it is though.

[ivanov]

thanks both for the contributions here, I'll take a look and get this is later on today.

[ivanov]

Talking this over with @minrk, we'll be better off using KernelManager to do this, so I'll merge this for now, but extend it to use that (less hacky) machinery

[ivanov]

Thanks for the contribution, @luispedro - I rebased this commit and it became 80eecbd. Then I just used the KernelManager machinery to start the kernel instead (cf54530). Let me know how that goes for you.

[ches]

Seems this PR can be closed 😄