[IPython-dev] IPython1 API design question

[Stefan van der Walt]

On Fri, Feb 08, 2008 at 09:16:25AM -0700, Brian Granger wrote:
> The alternate API would look some thing like this:
> 
> push(self, ns, block=True, targets='all')
> pull(self, keys, block=True, targets='all')
> 
> And be used:
> 
> push(dict(a=10,b=30), block=False)      # targets = 'all'
> pull(('a','b'))     # block=True, tagets='all'
> 
> the main disadvantage is that a user has to manually build the dict
> and tuple.  For pull, we could do a test to see if keys is a string
> and build the tuple for then, but for the dict, they really have to
> build it using dict or {}
> 
> So, which of these approaches seems better, both from the development
> and user's perspective?  Thoughts?

For what it's worth, I like the idea of pushing namespaces.  With the
current system, you can do (as a random example)

  push(*_ip.user_ns)

but then you have to make sure that the dict doesn't contain some
special keywords.  I imagine it would be better to shield the user
from such unexpected side-effects.

Regards
Stéfan