Consoles connected to external ipykernels break Plots and the Variable Explorer

[impact27]

Problem Description

When switching to an external ipykernel, the plugins do not update correctly.

For example, the variable explorer would show the namespace of the previous console instead of the current one

I know that the variable explorer is not expected to work for ipykernels, but it should not show the content of another console.

What steps reproduce the problem?

1. In a terminal: python -m ipykernel
2. Open spyder with one console named "Console 1"
3. Console > Connect to existing console > paste the kernel number (kernel-XXXX.json)
4. A new console (Console 2) opens
5. Go to console one, type a = 1
6. Open the variable explorer and see that a is 1
7. Go to Console 2 (The external one)
8. The variable explorer hasn't changed, even though a is not defined

The same problem happens for the plot

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

I would expect to see an empty variable explorer (Or plot plugin). Instead I see the data from the previous console I visited.
(Of course the best case would be if the system works with ipkernels)

Versions

• Spyder version: dev
• Python version: 3.8.5
• Qt version:
• PyQt version:
• Operating System name/version:

Dependencies

PASTE DEPENDENCIES HERE

[dalthviz]

Thanks for the feedback @impact27 !

Pinging @ccordoba12 just in case

[ccordoba12]

I agree with @impact27 that this is a very odd UX problem and we need to fix it.