Can Python code be included into the body of NetLogo code?

Question

As the title suggests, I am looking for a way to embed Python code into NetLogo. So far I have found the NetLogo Python extension but from my understanding this extension only runs in the NetLogo prompt below (where you put the Observer/Turtle/etc. commands), so more like a built-in interpreter.

My question is whether there is a way, using this extension or otherwise, to embed Python code into the body of a NetLogo project, for example like this:

; This is an extract of some method/subroutine
  print global-peopleNum

  (py:run
    "print('hello')"
  )

  set-patch-size 20
; other regular NetLogo code

so that it resembles compiled code as opposed to interpreted.

Answer 1

You can embed Python code directly into NetLogo code using the Python extension, it is not usable only through the command center. Check out the Python Basic Example and Python Flocking Clusters models that come with NetLogo in the models library.

Here is the code from the Python Basic Example model:

extensions [ py ]

to setup ; Here we setup the connection to python and import a few libraries
  py:setup py:python
  py:run "import math"
  py:run "import sys"
  py:run "import os"
  reset-ticks
end

to go ; make sure everything is ready to go!
  py:run "print('go!')"
end

to get-sys-info ; Here we use the `sys` package in python to output some system info
  output-print (word "Python directory: " (py:runresult "sys.prefix"))
  output-print (word "Platform: " (py:runresult "sys.platform"))
  output-print (word "Python copyright: " (py:runresult "sys.copyright"))
  output-print ""
end

to gcd ; Use the `math` package's built-in gcd method to calculate the gcd(a,b)
  py:set "a" a
  py:set "b" b
  let result py:runresult "math.gcd(a, b)"
  output-print (word "Greatest common divisor of " a " and " b " is: " result)
  output-print ""
end

to get-home-directory ; Use the `os` package to get the home directory of the system
  let home-dir py:runresult "os.environ['HOME']"
  output-print (word "Current home directory is: " home-dir)
  output-print ""
end

to join-strings ; join some strings in python
  let result joined-strings
  output-print (word "Here they are joined: " result)
  output-print ""
end

to-report joined-strings ; helper procedure to join strings using a delimiter
  py:set "delim" delimiter
  py:set "list" read-from-string string-list
  report py:runresult "delim.join(list)"
end

to to-upper-case ; upper case some Strings in Python
  let result joined-strings
  py:set "result" result
  set result py:runresult "result.upper()"
  output-print (word "Here they are in upper case: " result)
  output-print ""
end