[Python Edinburgh] Spyder help

[Mark Smith]

Hi Kris,

I'm not sure I can help with much of your email - I've never used Spyder,
and I haven't used Python(x,y) for about 3 years.

I can at least help with your console/ipython question, though:

Python can be run in one of two ways - the usual way of running it is to
pass it the path to a python program, which it will then run, and quit once
the program has finished. The other way, when you just type 'python' and
hit return, starts up the Python console or REPL. In this mode, you can
type individual lines of python into your command-line which it will then
Read, Evaluate and Print the result of, before Looping (hence REPL). It's
useful for testing out the odd line of python code, especially when
learning.

iPython is an improved version of the python console, supporting
tab-completion and a bunch of other improvements. (best to check out their
own documentation: http://ipython.org/ipython-doc/stable/overview.html).

There used to be an even better equivalent called bPython but it appears
iPython has had a *lot* of work done on it recently, especially if you're a
scientific/engineering programmer, so that may no longer be the case.
People seem to be getting very excited about iPython Notebook (
http://ipython.org/ipython-doc/stable/interactive/notebook.html#htmlnotebook
).

If you have lots of questions, I really recommend coming along to one of
the pub meetups - the next one is on Tuesday 26th Nov (which I admit is a
little way off). We're a very friendly bunch, and always happy to help
people new to the language.

--Mark



On 3 November 2013 22:00, G.K.CH. <gkchamielec at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello Pythons,
>
> I want to ask for some help in setting up Spyder and Python(x,y) and all
> the rest for my engineering work.
>
> I am building a program to analyse induction motors. I have written a raw
> code, I will work on some graphics (torque to speed curve etc) and I want
> to build a GUI.
>
> I did some research and spend a couple of days on installing and
> uninstalling plenty modules I had no idea what they were for. Running some
> examples. Generally messing about.
>
> I had a little success with running my code in IDLE. It pops up results I
> wanted.
>
> Yesterday I found out that the best way would be to install a nice package
> designed for engineers called Python(x,y), which I did.
>
> Then I loaded Spyder and I run into some problems:
> Spyder shows: NameError: name 'runfile' is not defined.
> I could just ignore Spyder and continue with IDLE but... it bytes me that
> such a nice interface as Spyder is not working as I would like.
>  Also: I don't quite understand the difference between IPython and
> standard Python, I don't know what "console" is or if it matters if
> something is in kernel or not and stuff like that. Just basic general
> know-how.
>
> I study at Napier and can come anywhere with my laptop with my stuff on it
> for a little inspection.
>
> I am plumber and electrician by trade so I can fix a leak in return.
>
> Thanks,
> Kris
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Edinburgh mailing list
> Edinburgh at python.org
> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edinburgh
>
>
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