Rich for library authors

[PhilipVinc]

Hi,

I develop a large library for machine-learning/quantum physics based on Jax, and I like rich and would like to integrate it in our framework.

There's 1 thing I'd like to do in particular: use colours in the repr of a structure to better signal our users when a diagnostic is bad or good. see the screenshot for example

The structure is a custom data class defined in our codebase. I would like to have the structure be printed by rich when the REPL displays it, but I don't want to force our users to install() rich.pretty.

To make it display nicely I can:

• from rich.pretty import install; install() when users import our libraries, and then define a __rich__ method on our structure. I think I cannot do this as it is beyond of our scope to activate rich for users.
• inherit from JupyterMixin and define __rich__ but that is not a great solution because it confuses our class hierarchy. Also JupyterMixin is not part of the documented API. Also, this will only work in ipython.
• define _ipython_display_(self): rich.print(self) and __rich__, but defining that is not recommended so... also not an ideal option and also would only work in ipython.

Are there any other options, that ideally will also work in a 'bare' python repl?

EDIT:
upon some investigating, I realised that if I define the __rich__ method together with

    def __repr__(self):
        import rich
        console = rich.get_console()
        segments = list(console.render(self, console.options))
        text = console._render_buffer(segments)
        return text

then the rich representation will be used even in python REPL! that is exactly what I need.
However is this considered API stable?

[willmcgugan]

You could define a __repr__ on your object that would print with rich, capture the output, and return the string with ansi codes.

However, I can't recommend that. If the result is not printed in a terminal, it will look like garbage.

The most reliable way would be to use the rich display hook and define a __rich__ method. If you don't want to ask users to do the from rich.pretty perhaps you can use the rich extension.

 %load_ext rich

[PhilipVinc]

doesn't %load_ext rich do exactly rich.pretty.install()?

[PhilipVinc]

However, I can't recommend that. If the result is not printed in a terminal, it will look like garbage.

I just tried to redirect the output from to a text file and it seems to me that the output does not look like garbage, but that ansi codes are simply stripped...

why do you think they would not be stripped?

[willmcgugan]

Rich will strip ansi codes when not writing to a terminal. You will need to construct your Console with `force_terminal=True`.

…

On Sun, Feb 6, 2022 at 5:49 PM Filippo Vicentini ***@***.***> wrote: However, I can't recommend that. If the result is not printed in a terminal, it will look like garbage. I just tried to redirect the output from to a text file and it seems to me that the output does not look like garbage, but that ansi codes are simply stripped... why do you think they would not be stripped? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#1924 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAEHLAJ23YFSDDA7GK33Z4TUZ2YA5ANCNFSM5NVSKOZQ> . Triage notifications on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS <https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1477376905?ct=notification-email&mt=8&pt=524675> or Android <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.github.android&referrer=utm_campaign%3Dnotification-email%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Dgithub>. You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

-- Will McGugan https://www.willmcgugan.com <http://www.willmcgugan.com>

[jacanchaplais]

I am having the exact same issue. I have added __rich__ special methods, and love rich's colours on my objects, but don't want to force my users to have everything else coloured after they've imported my package by using rich.pretty.install(). I can't seem to find a workaround. I would really like if I could make an instance of Console local to my package, and then have the __rich__ special methods hook into that, without needing a global console for the IPython terminal.

[jacanchaplais]

My source code: https://github.com/jacanchaplais/showerpipe/blob/release/0.2/showerpipe/generator.py#L303