Wolfram Language kernel for Jupyter notebooks

Jupyter provides a protocol (ZMQ) to connect their notebooks to various languages. This project defines a Wolfram Language kernel which can be used in Jupyter notebooks.

Prerequisites

On your machine, you will need:

• Jupyter
• Wolfram Engine, i.e., a Wolfram Desktop or Mathematica installation
• Optional, but recommended: wolframscript

Installation

There are two ways to make the Wolfram Language available in Jupyter:

• Using the wolframscript command line script interpreter
• Using Wolfram Language commands from the WolframLanguageForJupyter paclet.

Method 1: Using wolframscript

On macOS/Unix: Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/WolframResearch/WolframLanguageForJupyter.git

Run the following command in your shell to make the Wolfram Language engine available to Jupyter:

./configure-jupyter.wls add

On Windows: Follow the fist two steps here, and on the the third step select Download Zip, and unzip the file using a tool for Windows. Open PowerShell in the directory of the unzipped folder

Run the following command in your shell to make the Wolfram Language engine available to Jupyter:

.\configure-jupyter.wls add

Notes:

• If the location of the Wolfram Engine changes, you will have to run configure-jupyter.wls again.

• configure-jupyter.wls gives an error if the Wolfram Engine could not be added.

For more configuration options run:

./configure-jupyter.wls help

Method 2: Using Wolfram Language

You can download the latest version of the paclet here:

https://github.com/WolframResearch/WolframLanguageForJupyter/releases

To install the paclet, run the following command with Wolfram Language (replacing x, y, and z with the correct values):

PacletInstall["WolframLanguageForJupyter-x.y.z.paclet"]

To load the paclet, run:

Needs["WolframLanguageForJupyter`"]

To add the Wolfram Language to Jupyter, run:

ConfigureJupyter["Add"]

To specify a specific Jupyter binary, run:

ConfigureJupyter["Add", "JupyterInstallation" -> "..."]

To specify a specific Wolfram Engine binary, run:

ConfigureJupyter["Add", "WolframEngineBinary" -> "..." ]

Please note, however, that the value for the "WolframEngineBinary" option should not be a wolframscript path.

Testing your installation

The following command should now list the Wolfram Engine:

jupyter kernelspec list

The output should include a line like this:

wolframlanguage12    C:\ProgramData\jupyter\kernels\wolframlanguage12

To test your installation in a notebook, run the following command:

jupyter notebook

Then select Wolfram Language from the drop down menu:

After the In[] prompt you can now type a Wolfram Language command (use shift-enter to evaluate):

Outputs are either strings, for simple textual results, or images, for graphics and typeset results:

Any messages that occur during evaluation are displayed:

To test your installation in the terminal, run the following command:

jupyter-console --kernel=wolframlanguage12

Building the WolframLanguageForJupyter paclet

To build the WolframLanguageForJupyter paclet file yourself, run:

./configure-jupyter.wls build

This creates the WolframLanguageForJupyter-x.y.z.paclet file (use the PacletInfo.m to increment the version).

Removing your installation

Method 1: Using wolframscript

Run the following command to remove the Wolfram Language engine from Jupyter:

./configure-jupyter.wls remove

Method 2: Using Wolfram Language

Run the following command:

ConfigureJupyter["Remove"]

Links

• https://github.com/WolframResearch/WolframLanguageForJupyter
• https://jupyter.readthedocs.io/en/latest/projects/content-projects.html