Python

Python is the third script language of Methodox Office, beside Lua and C#. It plays the same parts in the programming model: a .py script in the Scripts pane is a Command, a functions.py holds worksheet Functions, and a smart object's source can be a Python expression. Python runs on SteelPython, which is part of the suite, so nothing else needs to be installed.

A first script

Choose Python in the language list of the Scripts pane and New script, or open the Nu example Circle of triangles.pptx, whose CircleOfTriangles.py draws the ring the Lua script draws:

import colorsys
import math

COUNT = 24      # how many triangles
RADIUS = 170    # points from the centre of the ring to the centre of each triangle
SIZE = 34       # each triangle's width and height, in points

page = doc.active_page
cx, cy = page.center_x, page.center_y

old = page.shapes.find("Ring")
if old is not None:
    old.delete()

triangles = []
for i in range(COUNT):
    angle = 360 * i / COUNT
    t = math.radians(angle)
    triangle = page.shapes.add_shape("triangle", 0, 0, SIZE, SIZE)
    triangle.center_on(cx + RADIUS * math.cos(t), cy + RADIUS * math.sin(t))
    triangle.rotation = angle + 90
    r, g, b = colorsys.hsv_to_rgb(i / COUNT, 0.65, 0.95)
    triangle.fill = "#{:02X}{:02X}{:02X}".format(int(r * 255), int(g * 255), int(b * 255))
    triangles.append(triangle)

ring = page.shapes.group(triangles)
ring.name = "Ring"
print(f"Drew {COUNT} triangles on page {page.index}.")

The names are those of the object models in snake_case: doc.active_page, sheet.used_range.address, doc.sheets.add(...). doc, app, session, param and host are there as in Lua, and positions count from 1 (doc.sheets[1]). A run is one transaction and one step of Edit ▸ Undo, rolled back if it fails, as for any Command. From the command line: MethodoxNu --script CircleOfTriangles.py --save-as ring.pptx.

Worksheet functions

In a script named functions.py (or anything.functions.py), every top-level def whose name is in capitals is a worksheet function, called as =PY.NAME(...):

def TAX(amount: float, rate: float = 0.2) -> float:
    """Tax on an amount, at 20% unless a rate is given."""
    return amount * rate

def SUMSQ(values: list) -> float:
    """The sum of the squares of a range."""
    return sum(v * v for row in values for v in row if isinstance(v, (int, float)))

The docstring is the description Insert Function shows; a default value makes an argument optional, *values takes any number, an annotation of list takes a whole range as a list of rows, and float, str and bool convert the argument. A function reads the document's parameters as param.Name, and one that fetches through host is a data-source Function. See Worksheet Functions for how functions recalculate, spill and are enabled.

Smart objects

In Insert ▸ Smart Object, choose Python and write an expression over other smart objects, smart.Revenue * 0.2 or smart["Revenue"] * 0.2, or a body that returns a value. It can call the functions in the document's Python function scripts. See Smart objects.

What a document's Python may do

What a document's Python may use depends on the edition:

Standard: the object models, the host's granted calls and a list of computing modules (math, cmath, statistics, decimal, fractions, random, re, json, datetime, calendar, zoneinfo, time, collections, itertools, functools, textwrap, heapq, bisect, copy, enum, colorsys, difflib, unicodedata, base64, hashlib, struct, array, numbers). There is no open, exec or eval, no .NET bridge and no installed package, and an import outside the list is refused with a message naming it.
Compute: all of Python, with the packages of the active environment and SteelPython's bridge to .NET.

Immediate mode in the Scripts pane is your own typing, so its Python has full access in both editions.

Environments and packages

Packages are yours, not a document's: a workbook you send to someone carries its scripts, not a copy of the packages they import. They are kept in Python environments, per user, in %LOCALAPPDATA%\DivookaOffice\Python\environments, one of which is active for every application. Their packages reach full-access Python: immediate mode, and documents in the Compute edition.

The Python environments and packages button on the Scripts pane's strip opens a dialog that chooses the active environment, makes and deletes environments, installs pip into one, and installs, upgrades and uninstalls packages (requests, or numpy==2.1 for a version), with pip's output shown as it runs. A newly chosen environment is used from the next start of the application.

pip runs in its own process, mos python, which is also Python on the command line:

mos python -V
mos python -c "print(2 ** 10)"
mos python script.py
mos python --env "%LOCALAPPDATA%\DivookaOffice\Python\environments\<name>" -m pip install requests

With --env, the environment is the installation: -m pip install installs into it and -m ensurepip puts pip there, as a virtual environment's own interpreter does.