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

[Fernando Perez]

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.

As the ipython developer, you could say that I'm biased :)  But you could
simply try it and see if you like it.  It's a simple python package with no C
dependencies (under *nix), so getting it going is pretty straightforward.  

I personally can't stand using the standard python shell anymore, which to me
feels like a crippled toy. But YMMV.

As Sean pointed, some of its nicer features (readline and color support) are
finally available to Windows XP/2k users, but only with CVS code.  I'll be
making a new release soon-ish, but I want to clean some other outstanding
small bugs before that.

> If it is so good then why is it not part of the standard Python
> tarball?

I'd like it to, but I haven't even considered proposing such an idea.  Right
now the ipython internals are a heinous mess, and nobody in their sane mind
would accept to maintain such a codebase.  But there's hope for a rewrite with
the help of some dedicated users (I have very limited time for its
development).  If we manage to clean it up completely, it might be conceivable
to propose it for the standard distribuition (not as a replacement, but as an
alternative: it's still slower to load and more complex code).

Regards,

Fernando.