[IPython-dev] Should we disable autocall by default from now on?

[Hans Meine]

I want to propose some changes (my previous mail got a little bit long, so I 
start over now):

Am Mittwoch, 30. November 2011, 22:56:05 schrieb Thomas Kluyver:
> I think this is a technical issue as much as anything. The terminal shell
> clearly shows the rewritten command, and it is sent as a payload over ZMQ,
> but AFAIK both of our frontends ignore it.

This should be fixed; indeed I do not see the expanded form anymore.

> With the notebook, I imagine we
> could literally rewrite the cell to "plot(e1)".

That would be great. In fact, I would propose to do this in all frontends:

- In graphical terminals (Qt, Notebook, Wx, ...), it should be
  rewritten in-place.
- In the standard terminal, /it should be rewritten in history/ at least.

Note that the latter can and should be done independent of other expansions 
(e.g. magics); I recall the discussion in which we (more or less) all agreed 
that history should give you the raw command (e.g. a magic) instead of 
revealing implementation details.

OTOH, I think with autocall, this could be better the other way round:

a) when copy-pasting from the history into .py files
b) when recalling and modifying the command into a more complex form
   not supported by autocall
c) with %recall or %macro and later copying into .py files

(Yes, c) is probably subsumed by a) )

What do you think?

Ciao,
  Hans