[Python.NET] Embedding a Python interactive shell in a .NET application

Saparya K spryify at gmail.com
Wed May 18 03:02:06 EDT 2016


Hi Denis,
Thanks for pointing me to the new API. I am now able to embed Python in my
C# code and access Python classes and methods from C#!

Hi Nils,
Your application looks very interesting and some of the features (e.g.
matplotlib integration) are on the lines of what I have been thinking
about. I am far from there though and will need to learn more before I can
follow all the code in your wrapper!

-----

As of now, I am trying to redirect the output from the Python interpreter
to a .NET text box. While I am able to redirect the output to a file, I am
having trouble with routing the output to a text box.

I first tried to redirect the console output to a custom TextWriter using
Console.SetOut in C#:

private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    _writer = new TextBoxWriter(this.textBox1);
    Console.SetOut(_writer);    // Redirect stdout to custom TextWriter
that writes to the text box
}

This did not work: while output from C# is routed to the text box, output
from Python is not.

-----

I then thought that maybe I need to redirect the Python stdout instead of
the C# standard output. The idea was to assign Python's sys.stdout to a
.NET object that implements the same interface as a python stream (write(),
writelines()...):

*.NET class to mimic Python stream:*

   1.

   public class TextBoxStream : PyObject // To assign to sys.stdout.
Is this correct?{
       private TextBox _output = null;

       public TextBoxStream() {}

       public TextBoxStream(TextBox output) {
           _output = output;
       }

       void write(object value) {
           _output.AppendText(value.ToString());
       }}

   *In Form1.cs:*

   private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
       using (Py.GIL())
       {
           // Redirect stdout to text box
           dynamic sys = PythonEngine.ImportModule("sys");
           TextBoxStream textBoxStream = new TextBoxStream(textBox1);
           sys.stdout = textBoxStream; // This is probably not theright way?
           //sys.SetAttr("stdout", textBoxStream); // This did not work either

           string code =
               "import sys\n" +
               "print 'Message 1'\n" +
               "sys.stdout.write('Message 2')\n" +
               "sys.stdout.flush()";

           PyObject redirectPyObj = PythonEngine.RunString(code); //
returns NULL
           sys.stdout.write("Message 3");
           // Exception thrown: 'Python.Runtime.PyObject' does not
contain a definition for 'stdout'
       }}


This does not work either: redirectPyObj is NULL. I tried using the old as
well as the new Python.NET API (with dynamic). Neither the sys.stdout.write
nor the print statements write to the text box.

Any ideas on how to approach this would be very helpful.
Thanks,
Saparya


On Tue, May 17, 2016 at 3:33 AM, Nils Becker <nilsc.becker at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hey,
>
> a while ago I wrote something like a light wrapper around Python.NET to
> embed CPython with numpy/scipy in a .NET GUI. It manages local/global
> dictionaries, automatically converts simple data types and numpy
> arrrays<->C# arrays and provides a plotting widget in C# that shows
> matplotlib plots. It also has some other convenience functions.
>
> The code is by no means complete, fully tested or even nice. However, for
> me it works.
>
> I uploaded it to github: https://github.com/Lodomir/PythonInterface
> As it demonstrates some not-well documented use of Python.NET, I thought
> it maybe nice to share the code.
>
> You will need to add the references to Python.NET to build the main
> project (PythonInterface) and additionally to the PythonInterface-DLL to
> build the examples.
>
> Cheers
> Nils
>
> 2016-05-13 22:04 GMT+02:00 Denis Akhiyarov <denis.akhiyarov at gmail.com>:
>
>> for embedding look at c# embedding unit tests and also here:
>>
>> 1. Old API:
>>
>> http://pythonnet.github.io/readme.html
>>
>> 2. New simplified API using dynamic:
>>
>> https://github.com/pythonnet/pythonnet/blob/master/README.md
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, May 12, 2016 at 4:16 PM, Saparya K <spryify at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks for your response, Denis.
>>>
>>> I had not come across Sho earlier. It looks very interesting. (If only
>>> Python 3.x support was available, though it does look like they have added
>>> support for their own math and visualization libraries).
>>>
>>> I am going over the demos and the unit tests and I was able to write a
>>> simple console application to access .NET objects from Python. This is very
>>> encouraging!
>>> I am still figuring out how to embed Python code in my C# WinForms
>>> application (instead of a console application).
>>>
>>> I will continue my experiments, but in the meantime if you or anyone
>>> else has any ideas on how to redirect the result from the Python
>>> interpreter (say, to a rich text box), I would love to hear them. That is
>>> one part of the puzzle that is unclear to me.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Saparya
>>>
>>> On Wed, May 11, 2016 at 4:01 PM, Denis Akhiyarov <
>>> denis.akhiyarov at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> This is definitely possible with WinForms or WPF. See the demo folder
>>>> in pythonnet repo. One of the demo's is still in pull request.
>>>>
>>>> You should probably just try running previous IronPython attempts using
>>>> pythonnet and report issues if any. Have a look at Sho from Microsoft.
>>>>
>>>> There is someone trying to embed ipython REPL using pythonnet/Excel-DNA
>>>> or COM in Excel with Custom Task Pane (CTP) written in WinForms:
>>>>
>>>> https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/jupyter/CVht4orvQtc
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, May 11, 2016 at 4:44 PM, Saparya K <spryify at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hello PythonNet,
>>>>>
>>>>> I am looking to embed a Python interactive (REPL) shell in a .NET
>>>>> WinForms application.
>>>>> This C# application displays a graphical visualization of some data.
>>>>> Methods to manipulate the data in the C# application would be exposed via a
>>>>> Python API.
>>>>> The idea is to be able to interact with the data from the Python shell
>>>>> via the API, and thereby updating the graphical view.
>>>>>
>>>>> Ideally, the shell should support any valid Python syntax that is
>>>>> required to use the API. This would involve:
>>>>>
>>>>>    1. Querying a collection of data from the application via the
>>>>>    Python API
>>>>>    2. Then manipulating this collection in the Python shell
>>>>>    3. Making API calls with the modified collection as an argument
>>>>>
>>>>> I came across a few examples where an interactive shell was developed
>>>>> using IronPython. A limitation with this approach is the absence of *Python
>>>>> 3.x* support (and other C-compiled libraries) in IronPython. For this
>>>>> reason, I would prefer to use Python.NET if it is possible.
>>>>>
>>>>> Has anyone here tried something like this with Python.NET before? Does
>>>>> it looks like what I am trying to achieve is feasible?
>>>>>
>>>>> Any direction would be very helpful!
>>>>>
>>>>> _________________________________________________
>>>>> Python.NET mailing list - PythonDotNet at python.org
>>>>> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pythondotnet
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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