should i switch to IPYTHON interpreter? What is the killer feature of it?

[Dang Griffith]

On 9 Dec 2003 16:19:35 -0800, seberino at spawar.navy.mil (Christian
Seberino) wrote:

>I know IPython is another interpreter for Python and was wondering
>what people liked about it and if I should switch to it.
>
>If it is so good then why is it not part of the standard Python
>tarball?
>
>Chris
I use it on Win32 and like that it provides a simpler/more direct
interface to the file system.  I.e., I can do things such as "cd
blahblahblah" and change the directory, rather than importing os and
calling os.chdir("blahblah"), "ls" instead of os.listdir('.'), and
that sort of thing. Also, you can create your own command aliases,
along the lines of cshrc, bash, etc.

Another feature I've used, at least occasionally, is the ability to
save the session history.  When I'm exploring a module I've not used
before, I do a lot of schtuff that doesn't work, get it to work, then
move forward (not work, work, not work, work).  By the time I've
reached my goal, though, I've become addled and have forgotten which
pieces parts works and which didn't.  With IPython, I can save that
history and review what worked and what didn't, delete the chaff and
try the wheat again later.

At least one reason it's not part of the standard tarball is that it's
owned by a different group of people.

    --dang
p.s.
One could argue that my approach to learning new modules could use
improvement. And while that may be true, I've found that learning to
recognize error messages, and what causes them, makes it easier to
help others.