matplotlib-devel Mailing List for matplotlib

John Hunter wrote:
> Thanks for chugging along on this. When time permits, I know Fernando
> is interested in joining in this discussion because we previously
> discussed adopting a python based config file that allowed recursive
> includes that might be usable both for ipython and matplotlib,
I can't really work on this right now (I'll be fixing the mpl-related %run 
things first), but I have a generic comment to make. I want ipython to be 
usable as a standalone package, without traits or any other very fancy things. 
 So I'd like to have a simple module whose job is only to load a config file 
written in pure python, with the only unusual feature of allowing recursive 
inclusions with an intelligent path search. This is quite simple to write (if 
it weren't for recursion/path, it would be a trivial execfile() call).
I would then layer on top of this, perhaps a traits-based system which would 
allow for example gui editing of parameters. But ipython will always run in a 
plain terminal without traits or any kind of gui.
I am also not terribly interested in keeping backwards compatibility. The 
main reason I don't call ipython 1.0 is API changes: I still consider its 
design to be in flux, so even though I try hard not to break things just for 
the fun of it, I'm willing to in order to have a clean design for the future. 
 At some point when I implement the new python-based rc system, I'll simply 
have to tell users to edit their config files to the new format. Not 
particularly pleasant, but it's a one-time pain. And the time it would take 
to write and maintain a solid, bulletproof format cross-reader is IMHO better 
spent on other tasks.
Regards,
f