ANN: IPython 0.2.8

[Fernando Pérez]

Announcing an update to IPython, an enhanced interactive Python shell. 

WHERE: http://www-hep.colorado.edu/~fperez/ipython

NEW since last public release (ChangeLog included with full details):

- Full Emacs integration. Now IPython can be used both in Emacs shell/term 
buffers and also as your Python interpreter (with C-c !). Instructions on the 
necessary code for your .emacs file provided.

- Interface to the Gnuplot plotting system. This can be used as a template 
for interfacing with any other program which one can communicate with (via 
pipes, sockets, whatever).

- Many improvements to the embedding facilities. It's now possible to have 
nested copies of IPython running (such as debugging code with embedded 
IPython inside IPython itself). Global and local locks for the embedded 
instances provided to control them better.

- User controllable prompt system. Particularly useful for using IPython as 
an embedded interpreter for other code.

- Improved macro system for automatically re-executing many lines of previous 
input.

- Small updates for better behavior under Python 2.2 (only 2.1 required)

- Improved manual, now @magic system is fully documented.

- Simplified Windows installation.

- Better control for running other programs inside IPython via @run.

- New -upgrade command line option for old users to update their .ipython/ 
directory automatically.

- Improvements to auto-completion code. Also made readline an option (not 
using it disables completion, of course).

- New paging system (for viewing long strings and files) is now OS 
independent.

- Many small bugfixes.


WHAT is IPython? (this is just for context. See the webpage for full 
details). IPython tries to:

1. Provide an interactive interpreter superior to Python's default. IPython 
has many features for object introspection, shell access, and its own special 
command system for adding functionality when working interactively.

2. Serve as an embeddable, ready to use interpreter for your own programs. 
IPython can be started with a single call from inside another program, 
providing access to the current namespace. This can be very useful both for 
debugging purposes and for situations where a blend of batch-processing and 
interactive exploration are needed.

3. Offer a flexible framework which can be used as the base environment for 
other systems with Python as the underlying language. Specifically scientific 
environments like Mathematica, IDL and Matlab inspired its design, but 
similar ideas can be useful in many fields.


Portability: Linux (and other unices, including Mac OSX), Windows XP. Should 
run fine on all WinNT, and probably also on Win9x (I can't test that).

Python version: requires 2.1 or newer.

License: LGPL (a few files from third parties carry MIT licenses).

Cheers,

Fernando Perez.