Embedding python in tikz

Question

I just discovered the python package, and I'm trying to use it in Tikz code. Unfortunately, this doesn't work:

\documentclass[oneside]{memoir}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepackage{python}

\begin{document}
\begin{figure}[H]
\centering
\begin{tikzpicture}
    \draw (0, 0) -- (
\begin{python}
print(1)  # note that my default Python version is 3.2, so this works outside the tikzpicture environment. 
\end{python}
, 0);
\end{tikzpicture}
\caption{Blah.}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

The first error I get is:

Runaway argument? {pgf@tempcolor}{\def \@currenvir {python}\edef \@currenvline {\on@line \ETC. ! Paragraph ended before \XC@definec@lor was complete. \par l.13 print(1)

I suspect you've forgotten a `}', causing me to apply this control sequence to too much text. How can we recover? My plan is to forget the whole thing and hope for the best.

Is it possible to get something like this work? Maybe with a different python package? Also, is there a way to make it so that the Python definitions persist between embedded environments?

Answer 1

You may be interested in my PythonTeX package. It only executes Python code when it is modified, saves all Python-generated results, and provides persistence between environments/commands.

I expect that part of the problem you were running into in your example relates to the internal workings of \draw. I couldn't get an equivalent example to work with my package either, and received similar errors. However, the following example does work. Note that the pycode environment currently cannot be indented, so the formatting is a little different than your example. Also, the \py and \pyc are for inline use, when you don't need a whole environment. \pyc executes code, and \py returns a string representation of whatever it is given.

\documentclass[oneside]{memoir}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepackage{pythontex}

\begin{document}
\begin{figure}[H]
\centering
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{pycode}
a = 2
print(r'\draw (0, 0) -- ({0}, 0);'.format(a))
\end{pycode}
\pyc{b = 3}
\py{r'\draw (0, 0) -- ({0}, 1);'.format(b)}
\end{tikzpicture}
\caption{Blah.}
\end{figure}
\end{document}