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DOC: Add documentation about current getters support
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bnmajor committed Nov 30, 2023
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29 changes: 29 additions & 0 deletions docs/advanced.md
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# Advanced
----------

## Returning Values

Communication with the IPython Kernel is asynchronous, which means that running Python code blocks any comm messages until the Python code is done. With regards to ITKWidgets this means that getter functions do not "just work" - the Python code cannot complete until the comm message has resolved with the response and the message cannot resolve until the code has completed. This creates a deadlock that prevents the kernel from progressing. This has been a [documented issue](https://github.com/ipython/ipykernel/issues/65) for many years.

Libraries like [ipython_blocking](https://github.com/kafonek/ipython_blocking) and [jupyter-ui-poll](https://github.com/Kirill888/jupyter-ui-poll) have made efforts to address this issue and their approaches have been a great source of inspiration for the custom solution that we have chosen for ITKWidgets.

Our current solution prevents deadlocks but requires that getters be requested in one cell and resolved in another. For example:

```python
viewer = view(image)
```
```python
bg_color = viewer.get_background_color()
print(bg_color)
```
would simply become:

```python
viewer = view(image)
```
```python
bg_color = viewer.get_background_color()
```
```python
print(bg_color)
```
1 change: 1 addition & 0 deletions docs/index.md
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Expand Up @@ -23,4 +23,5 @@ quick_start_guide.rst
deployments.rst
integrations.rst
development.rst
advanced.rst
```

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