[SciPy-dev] Re: Octave array formatting examples

[Fernando Pérez]

> 
> I think I've voiced my only concerns already.  Using a pager for the help 
> system makes it incompatible for use with emacs.    

Ah, that's a problem that is with the pydoc help, so even if people use the
normal python prompt and import pydoc.help (as many do), they'll run into the
same thing. I have for IPython written a page() function which works both in
linux and windows, but unfortunately it crashes the python process (even a
normal, non-IPython one) inside emacs.

The strange thing is that inside page() everything is done with try/except
blocks, yet python manages to crash completely and dump me at the shell.

 > The default settings make it not work with emacs either.  

I know, using IPython in emacs just freezes. I've tried debugging this a bit
but got nowhere. I realize it's annoying, but unfortunately emacs' process
buffers are fairly strange terminals and I just can't figure out why they
freeze and crash so badly. 

On the other hand, I used to be a fan of those buffers in emacs until I
wrote IPython :) Basically, in IPython I get all the things I needed from
emacs (history across sessions, name completion, completion in history only,
etc.).

But I know that's a cheap copout. Ideally IPython should work under emacs,
albeit with whatever limitations the terminal has. Unfortunately I just
haven't been able to even understand where the crashes are (since they
bypass try/except so badly for page(), and freeze hard for IPython). If
someone more familiar with emacs' internals can give a hand, I'll be happy
to work on it and hopefully fix it.

So as it stands, yes, IPython and X/emacs just  don't get along. Sorry.

Cheers,

f.