how to use IPython

Question

I could not understand the ipython library. This url provide the common feature but I could not core-relate it. http://ipython.org/ipython-doc/stable/interactive/tutorial.html

How to I use IPython to improve my day to day python application experience?

Answer 1

ipython is an improved interactive prompt, not a library. It has features like tab completion and profiles which are not present in the vanilla interactive prompt (which is running python without an input file). All features are listed on the page you cited.

So, it doesn't really improve your day to day python application experience (whatever that means), but it does provide benefits during development.

Also, there is an alternative, called bpython, it has quite great features, too.

• Madhusudan.C.S: I love bpython for its on the fly suggestion of keywords, functions, classes and modules. But ipython is far more advanced and mature. It can run parallel programs and can run on distributed systems.

Answer 2

do you do any scientific computing? ipython 0.12 has new functionality called ipython notebook that's really useful for data analysis. you can easily print graphs and data inline in your browser and reload your code. You can then print it as a pdf and make a nice report.

it's also useful for learning python due to ipython's functionality. you can quickly test and understand how certain functions operate. A few particularly useful functionality aside from tab completion

• object?? gives you more information about the object
• %history gives you a list of all your previous commands
• %debug if you hit an error, this will put you into the debugger so you can quickly debug