Customizable hook for pinfo (?) akin to _ipython_display_

[b3m2a1]

Problem

I often want ? to provide me with much richer information that it does. I'd like the ability to hook nice widgets/interactive information modules info the ? interface. For now, I can display them with _ipython_display_ but I'd like if there were a similar hook I could use to do things like

?SomeExampleClass(...)

<displays a little object explorer>

or

?SomeExampleClass

<displays interactive examples>

Proposed Solution

Add a magic method like __pinfo_display__ that can be used to generate informative displays through the pinfo method

Additional context

Here's an example of what I imagine this looking like (the app is just a random sample app; the real deal would be much more help oriented)

I can make that app no issue and make it nicely interactive but I can't figure out how to hook it into the help system

[JasonWeill]

Triage notes:

@Carreau is building papyri-lab (see also papyri) that may add similar functionality.

Modifying the ? behavior should probably go first into an ipykernel issue; JupyterLab would then display the output of ipykernel interactively, as you describe.

Can you please take a look at the links above? If your idea is different and you would like to keep the proposal open, please also open an issue against ipykernel and link it here.

[b3m2a1]

Opened ipython/ipykernel#1005

[b3m2a1]

See my further comments there for a way to monkey patch this in while I wait for it to be integrated into the system

As an example:

Screen.Recording.2022-10-15.at.3.14.24.AM.mov

[krassowski]

Closing as this cannot be solved by JupyterLab - this is an IPython enhancement request.

FYI recent versions of IPython introduced as MIME hook for customising the pinfo output, for reference see

• Improve typing and MIME hook API for inspector ipython/ipython#14342
• https://github.com/ipython-contrib/ipython-markdown-inspector