[IPython-dev] New ipythonqt console questions/feedback

[Erik Tollerud]

> I just wanted to let you know that I am planning on working on this
> (the configuration stuff) over the next few weeks.  We implemented a
> new configuration system last summer and it needs some updating and
> cleanup that I am planning on doing as part of this work.  I will keep
> you posted on the progress.

Ah, great - in that case I'll just wait to see how that shapes up
before trying to hack on anything myself.


> This is definitely doable with the underlying machinery; it's really a
> matter of startup scripts.  There could easily be a script for starting
> *just* an ipython kernel bound to no frontends, then start all frontends
> just like you currently do with the second frontend. That script isn't
> written yet, though. It would presumably be the new 'ipkernel' script.
> For now, I whipped up an example which just adds a '--kernel-only' flag to
> ipythonqt that skips the frontend setup:
> http://github.com/minrk/ipython/tree/kernelonly

This makes sense, although the more typical use case for me is wanting
to start up ipythonqt normally, executing something that will take a
while, and realizing this only *after* it's running.  So an additional
key-binding along the lines of the "detatch" function in screen is
what I was thinking of.  e.g. something that will close the qt
frontend without closing the kernel.  Of course, I can do this using
the --kernel-only flag now and then connect to that kernel, but this
requires planning ahead, something I do my best to avoid :)

At any rate, as you say, this will hopefully become much more natural
to implement when the parallel framework is in place - I just wanted
to point out this particular use-case that I would find very useful.

>> As soon as you have a standalone GUI that feels a terminal, exposing a
>> keybinding API becomes important.  We should probably ape someone else's model
>> for this, so as to minimize relearning for users. Do you have any examples of
>> nicely customizable apps for us to look at?
>
> http://code.enthought.com/projects/traits/docs/html/TUIUG/factories_advanced_extra.html#keybindingeditor
>
> <wink>  ;-)

This is indeed the sort of thing I had in mind, but it seems natural
to me to expose it as an option for an ipython profile file or
something similar in the .ipython directory given that's currently
where all the configuration goes. Presumably the Traits Qt backend can
be examined to figure out how to do this?


-- 
Erik Tollerud