should i switch to IPYTHON interpreter? What is the killer feature of it?

[Christian Seberino]

I know IPython is another interpreter for Python and was wondering
what people liked about it and if I should switch to it.

If it is so good then why is it not part of the standard Python
tarball?

Chris

[Irmen de Jong]

дамјан г. wrote:

Put this in ~/.pythonrc, and setup the PYTHONSTARTUP environment variable to
point to it: export PYTHONSTARTUP=~/.pythonrc
# ~/.pythonrc
# enable syntax completion
try:
import readline
except ImportError:
print "Module readline not available."
else:
import rlcompleter
readline.parse_ and_bind("tab: complete")

I say thank you ! This works like a charm.
Somehow I've never discovered rlcompleter... :-)

--Irmen

[Sean Richards]

Dang Griffith <no*****@noemai l4u.com> writes:

On Wed, 10 Dec 2003 11:19:21 +0100, Irmen de Jong
<[e-mail]> wrote:

Sean Richards wrote:

Tab completion for keywords and methods etc (you can get this in the
standard python shell as well of course)

You can? How?

--Irmen

Press tab after typing part of the keyword/method.

This assumes you're *not* using Win32. The documentation says that
IPython requires the GNU readline function, which I guess isn't
available with Win32. Neither is color highlighting.

--dang

Actually you can get all this on win32 if you use the cvs version of
IPython and Gary Bishop's Python readline module. There is a URL
and instructions on how to set it up here.
http://www.scipy.net/pipermail/ipyth...er/000094.html
The Python readline module needs ctypes so get that as well.
Works with Python 22 and 23 and gives you readline functionality and
colour highlighting when using IPython under win32.

Sean
--
"Hver sin smak", sa vintapperen, han drakk mens de andre sloss.

[Gary Bishop]

?????? ?. <[e-mail] nguinista> wrote:

# ~/.pythonrc
# enable syntax completion
try:
import readline
except ImportError:
print "Module readline not available."
else:
import rlcompleter
readline.parse_ and_bind("tab: complete")

This will work on win32 as well if you download ctypes and then my
python implementation of gnu readline from

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/u...1.zip?download

It also includes the ability to translate ascii color escapes into
colors on windows for use with iPython.

gb

[Fernando Perez]

Christian Seberino wrote:

I know IPython is another interpreter for Python and was wondering
what people liked about it and if I should switch to it.
As the ipython developer, you could say that I'm biased :) But you could
simply try it and see if you like it. It's a simple python package with no C
dependencies (under *nix), so getting it going is pretty straightforward .

I personally can't stand using the standard python shell anymore, which to me
feels like a crippled toy. But YMMV.

As Sean pointed, some of its nicer features (readline and color support) are
finally available to Windows XP/2k users, but only with CVS code. I'll be
making a new release soon-ish, but I want to clean some other outstanding
small bugs before that.
If it is so good then why is it not part of the standard Python
tarball?

I'd like it to, but I haven't even considered proposing such an idea. Right
now the ipython internals are a heinous mess, and nobody in their sane mind
would accept to maintain such a codebase. But there's hope for a rewrite with
the help of some dedicated users (I have very limited time for its
development). If we manage to clean it up completely, it might be conceivable
to propose it for the standard distribuition (not as a replacement, but as an
alternative: it's still slower to load and more complex code).

Regards,

Fernando.

[Tim Golden]

"Gary Bishop" <[e-mail] u> wrote in message news:<3f******* *@news.unc.edu> ...

?????? ?. <[e-mail] nguinista> wrote:

# ~/.pythonrc
# enable syntax completion
try:
import readline
except ImportError:
print "Module readline not available."
else:
import rlcompleter
readline.parse_ and_bind("tab: complete")

This will work on win32 as well if you download ctypes and then my
python implementation of gnu readline from

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/u...1.zip?download

Brilliant! Thank you very much indeed.

I would add a warning for those Windows users who aren't also Linux
users: by default you'll need to use Ctrl-D to exit the interpreter
rather than Ctrl-Z. (I imagine this could be changed; I've given the
source no more than a cursory glance).

TJG