5 ms·

IPython gets $1.15M funding

335 points by kkuduk 14y ago

tomrod 14y ago
Fantastic!
yen223 14y ago
That grant is well deserved. IPython is easily the most useful Python tool I have ever used.
- mahmoudimus 14y ago
  Absolutely - it is definitely essential to python development. Although I hear more and more people talk about bpython[1]. I understand why it's different, but it's just not as awesome as IPython, especially since IPython 0.11+ This is big news for the Python community :) [1] http://bpython-interpreter.org/ http://bpython-interpreter.org/
aaronbrethorst 14y ago
What's IPython?
- yen223 14y ago
  http://ipython.org/ipython-doc/dev/overview.html http://ipython.org/ipython-doc/dev/overview.html Basically it's the Python terminal on steroids.
  - cdavid 14y ago
    It is now much, much more than that. Besides the notebook (that allows you to mix python, images, math, etc... inside an html browser: http://ipython.org/ipython-doc/stable/_static/notebook_specgram.png http://ipython.org/ipython-doc/stable/_static/notebook_specg...), you get a powerful engine capable of distributing computation between different machines.
- rat87 14y ago
  It's a python repl, it has a bunch of useful syntax extensions such as autocall(not needing to type parens after no args calls and around one arg calls) ? ?? for help summary, syntax higlighting, readline, tab completion, optional integration with GTK, Qt or wxWidgets toolkits(ie letting you build and interact with guis in repl). ipython has a client/server model with multiple gui frontends including a qt one that lets you print out inline graphs and ipython notebook which lets you generate documents with code and data analysis/visualization. I believe the last part is what the grant is for. Python has been used in scientific and statistical fields a lot lately and ipython notebook is quite useful for that.
benhamner 14y ago
Thrilled to see this. IPython Notebook has become my go-to tool for data munging and analytics. I look forward to seeing the IPython team take it to the next level.
3amOpsGuy 14y ago
IPython is extremely useful. I like the qtconsole feature but i find it less than perfect to install: 1. pip install ipython 2. <system package manager> install qt4 3. pip install pyside / qt4 bindings The better feature, for me anyway, is the notebook interface (it starts a local web server and gives you a rich web guy, somewhat like a Mathematica idea of interactive notebook editing with inline charting etc.) But, that's a whole other bunch of dependencies that aren't in scope when installing ipython. Not sure of the best fix, offer ipython and ipython-full-stack on PyPI?
- cdavid 14y ago
  If you want qt, I would say your best bet is one of the full python distribution for scientific python, e.g. winPython, python(x, y), EPD, Anaconda. Everybody working on one of this is a user of ipython, and care about the notebook, and most of them have a free version available (free as no cost, not necessarily open source) (disclaimer, I work for Enthought, which sells EPD)
  - andybak 14y ago
    The free version of Enthought solved a bunch of problems for me on OSX. It bundles a lot of the binary libraries that are a bitch to compile yourself.
    - cdavid 14y ago
      Glad it is working for you. I have now just started working on it, so let me know if there are things you'd like to see improved.
    - simonh 14y ago
      I've had a Mac at home since 2007 and had a go at doing some python programming on it a few years ago and gave up. I got 2.7 installed, virtualenv, even Qt but eventually a few things broke and I ended up switching to programming in a Linux VM. I might have another go now I've got a shiny new Mini with ML on it. If i have problems I'll give Enthought a try. Given the popularity of OSX with developers it's shocking how few Python libraries have good OSX binary packages. A few times I've found the easiest platform to work on is actually Windows. For example with PySide for a long time the binaries in all the Linux repos were out of date, OSX support was intermittently flaky, but the Windows installer was complete and up to date. Yes I know you can compile from source, but I am a Python programmer. I develop software in Python, not C. I wonder if the poor state of binary packages for OSX is actually because it's a Unix variant. i.e. module developers deliberately choose not to do binary OSX builds because hey, the users can just compile from source. No, we can't all compile from source. We're not all C hackers, that's why many of us use Python in the first place. </entitled rant>
olefoo 14y ago
IPython notebook is actually one of the most interesting developments not just in the python world, but in computing generally. It's the first step towards the fully graphical shell on the internet that many of us have been looking for, whether or not we realize it. Being able to weave together text|markdown, tabular data (in almost any format you want) and images ( whether from matplotlib, raw captures, or synthetic assemblies ) in one environment is very powerful. I suspect that with some additional tools IPython notebook will become the integrators workbench par excellence, useful in many contexts.
- andybak 14y ago
  It sorely needs some better tutorials, demos. The official docs are dry and dwell on technical matters rather than giving you some sense of the potential. There isn't much else out there - especially if you aren't doing scientific or statistical work. I'm sure the iPython Notebook could be useful in my day to day Python/Django usage but I haven't figured out how yet.
  - vitalique 14y ago
    There's a great (but somewhat lengthy) video tutorial[1] from Pycon US'12 that covers a lot of IPython and the Notebook. Highly recommended; it's a live demo by the authors of the tools. Seriously, IPython is the coolest thing that happened to Python since Python, and anyone even slightly interested owes it to himself to play with IPython. [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G5YTlheCbw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G5YTlheCbw
    - andybak 14y ago
      Thanks. Personally I'm allergic to video tutorials but I'm sure that will be great for others.
    - mkarttic 14y ago
      I second this recommendation. Its an awesome demo. I used ipython from before, but barely scratched the surface. Now I use IPython to finish up assignments where the code documents itself, and with extra tex/images to fill in where required. I even 'cheat' sometimes on Project Euler by running problems in parallel using ipython. ;)
slykat 14y ago
I really wish there was an equivalent of IPython in Ruby; it's one of the tools I miss the most from python.
- Ip12 14y ago
  There is pry for ruby
- carreau 14y ago
  Hi, The notebook does not care wether or not the language is python,ruby.. or else. As we are mainly python developer the notebook is known for it's python bindings, but the ability to run ruby code is on its way. Cf instruction here https://github.com/ipython/ipython/pull/2643 https://github.com/ipython/ipython/pull/2643 We really would love ruby devs help into packaging and make it seamless to run for user, and any other languages that would wish to join. I actually working on writing a Julia kernel which will be my first encounter with Julia.
hanula 14y ago
Fantastic news, IPython deserves it and can't wait what they will deliver next.
rayk 14y ago
It was great to click through and learn that the funding was a grant. With that kind of a number, I thought they had raised a VC round - not that companies working on open source projects is bad, but it is always nice that they don't have to worry about a business model.
opminion 14y ago
The notebook interface is the natural generalisation of the REPL, and has the potential of being reused and copied by other languages (clojure, JavaScript) just as, in offline form, it has been used in Mathematica and Racket for years.
- darkarmani 14y ago
  I think the notebook will eventually support other languages behind it.
  - takluyver 14y ago
    It should do, yes. The developers of Julia have said that they're going to use the IPython notebook rather than rolling their own interactive interface.
stefanu 14y ago
You can try IPython (shell) and IPython Notebook (web interface) online with Wakari at https://www.wakari.io https://www.wakari.io - platform (with all popular Python scientific libraries installed) that lets you run multiple Python sessions and access them online anywhere. It also allows IPython Notebook sharing - you can share your workflow.
- jpratt 14y ago
  There's NBCloud (http://notebookcloud.appspot.com http://notebookcloud.appspot.com) if you want to host notebooks on your own Amazon cluster (great for using the parallel computing features). Also, PiCloud (http://www.picloud.com http://www.picloud.com) has a notebooks tab for launching an IPython Notebook as a job. That's useful because it means you can use their compute and data facilities with it easily.
Ip12 14y ago
Congratulations, well deserved
nimrody 14y ago
I would be wonderful if we could re-use the notebook interface for other language - Octave, Julia, R, Ruby. (Would also be nice if building ipython on OS X was easier!)
- carreau 14y ago
  AS I reply to another comment it is possible and on it's way. for ruby cf https://github.com/ipython/ipython/pull/2643 https://github.com/ipython/ipython/pull/2643 and Julia https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/1330 https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/1330
- shared4you 14y ago
  Sage Notebook interface can be used for Python, R, Octave, Matlab, Mathematica, LaTeX among others. http://www.sagenb.org http://www.sagenb.org
- dmboyd 14y ago
  Rmagic and octave magic work pretty well in my experience (which rely on Rpy2 and oct2py)
- yen223 14y ago
  (Would also be nice if building ipython on OS X was easier!) What issue do you face? Genuinely curious, because I use Mountain Lion, and installing IPython for me simply involves doing pip install ipython I installed Python from source though.
  - nimrody 14y ago
    Thanks. It mostly worked. Of course, the real benefit of ipython is the notebook. For that you need (on OS X) brew install python # or just download and install from source pip install numpy pip install matplotlib pip install ipython[zmq,qtconsole,notebook,test] Actually, for qtconsole you need to install Qt and pip install pyside But the latter failed to build on my machine... (Given that Apple's gcc version is ancient and clang is the default compiler on OS X -- it's a wonder the other tools were built correctly)
winter_blue 14y ago
When will we hear about PyPy getting a similar amount of funding? It's a great project, and lack of funding has prevented them from delivering on Py3k.
- dalke 14y ago
  PyPy had 1,353,000 euro in EU funding, so they have received a similar amount already. However, pypy is also a much more ambitious project, and needs a lot more funding than IPython to achieve its full goals.
Apreche 14y ago
Why does IPython get all the love? I tried it out back in the day, but it was not very impressive. bpython is much better, but doesn't seem to get as much attention.
- theorique 14y ago
  TIL there is a bpython. Thus (anecdotally) proving your point, I suppose.
- takluyver 14y ago
  How long ago was 'back in the day'? Development has really picked up since about 2011, and it's become much more than just a shell. IPython has a particular focus on scientific computing, and how we can mix ad-hoc exploratory computing with recorded, repeatable computing, which leads to tools like the notebook. If bpython does what you want, that's great. But the equivalent functionality is just one part of IPython.
- dalke 14y ago
  I know little about bpython. I have observed that IPython has very good outreach. Fernando Pérez has promoted IPython at many conferences, helped a lot of people, been responsive to requests, active in the Python community, and all of the other factors that help make a successful project. It's also been around longer than bpython. IPython started in 2001 while bpython is from 2009. The current IPython has several GUI interfaces, including through a web browser, with the goal of supporting a graphical notebook with embedded plots and other images. bpython does not support that. There are very few tools in the extended REPL space. I think software developers don't spend as much time on the interactive shell as computational scientists, and those developers that do may augment the shell with, say, the emacs shell rather than develop a new interactive interface. So an early tool which works reasonably well, which has been around for a while, with few competitors, and has outreach and updates based on user needs, will tend to be more widely used.
- hogu 14y ago
  Do you work in scientific computing? I think if you did, then you would understand - Will bpython allow me to control a cluster of python processes to perform my scientific computation? - Will bpython allow me to create executable documents mixing markdown as well as LaTeX so that I can display mathematical equations? - Does bpython have integrated matplotlib support, so that the GUI thread of matplotlib runs in a separate thread and won't block the interpreter? IPython is much more than just an interactive shell, even though the name doesn't suggest more than that.
RaSoJo 14y ago
This is the awesomest news for the day. It is so much more than a tool purely for the scientific community. I use it for quick fire data analytics codes all the time. Especially when coupled with pandas and matplotlib. pandas can output data in a tabular format directly onto the HTML notebook. If creating forms on the same was a bit more simpler, then it would be biggest boon to a data analyst since excel sheets...dare i say. It would lead to quick fix applications, rapid prototyping for reporting applications. And it can be hosted and shared directly: http://nbviewer.ipython.org/ http://nbviewer.ipython.org/
JacobIrwin 14y ago
hand-written thank you from me is going out tomorrow to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (http://www.sloan.org/contact-us/ http://www.sloan.org/contact-us/)
tdfx 14y ago
I was lucky enough to find IPython early on when I started with Python. I'm constantly amazed with its feature set. Some cool things I found useful: The "run" command for running python scripts: * -t to print timing information * -p to print profiling info from profiler module * -d run the script under pdb interactively (with -b to set line breakpoints) * -n to set __name__ All of these things can be done fairly easily on their own, but doing it through IPython makes the output so much easier to read and work with. Whenever I'm working with data I need to visualize, I like to use: ipython qtconsole --pylab=inline to get a terminal-like window that has inline graphs from matplotlib functions.
- ninetax 14y ago
  When I try to set __name__ with -n it says it's a bad flag. This is with the shell command. Is there something special I need to do?
  - takluyver 14y ago
    You use it inside IPython, with a command like: %run -n foo.py You can't set __name__ to arbitrary values. It's either '__main__' like when running a script, or (with -n) the module name, like when performing an import.
speg 14y ago
This might be a silly question, and perhaps not the place for it, apologies in advance. Love iPython, except for one thing I can't seem to figure out. print "Hello World" hit up arrow to recall previous line, press ctrl+a to try and jump to the beginning of the line but instead my cursor jumps to a new empty line on the right side of the screen? What is going on?! I don't get how this split is supposed to work and it always throws me in it when I least expect it. I just want to do a simple edit to my previous command :(
- jonknee 14y ago
  Do you have readline installed? Your sequence works as expected for me.
- callahad 14y ago
  Are you on OS X? IPython is probably finding libedit instead of readline. Try doing an `easy_install readline` before you `pip install ipython` in your virtualenv. It should work just fine, then.
petergx 14y ago
Awesome news! ipython + notebook is amazing.
account_taken 14y ago
I'm surprised Python doesn't get more in return. Google, Pinterest, Disqus, ... all these guys have buku funding and use Python heavily. Why not show Python some love? Make the VM up to par with V8.
rd108 14y ago
Congratulations, guys. Excellent work and I love Ipython :)

335 points by kkuduk 14y ago

tomrod 14y ago

Fantastic!

yen223 14y ago

That grant is well deserved. IPython is easily the most useful Python tool I have ever used.

mahmoudimus 14y ago
Absolutely - it is definitely essential to python development. Although I hear more and more people talk about bpython[1]. I understand why it's different, but it's just not as awesome as IPython, especially since IPython 0.11+ This is big news for the Python community :) [1] http://bpython-interpreter.org/ http://bpython-interpreter.org/

aaronbrethorst 14y ago

What's IPython?

yen223 14y ago
http://ipython.org/ipython-doc/dev/overview.html http://ipython.org/ipython-doc/dev/overview.html Basically it's the Python terminal on steroids.
- cdavid 14y ago
  It is now much, much more than that. Besides the notebook (that allows you to mix python, images, math, etc... inside an html browser: http://ipython.org/ipython-doc/stable/_static/notebook_specgram.png http://ipython.org/ipython-doc/stable/_static/notebook_specg...), you get a powerful engine capable of distributing computation between different machines.
rat87 14y ago
It's a python repl, it has a bunch of useful syntax extensions such as autocall(not needing to type parens after no args calls and around one arg calls) ? ?? for help summary, syntax higlighting, readline, tab completion, optional integration with GTK, Qt or wxWidgets toolkits(ie letting you build and interact with guis in repl). ipython has a client/server model with multiple gui frontends including a qt one that lets you print out inline graphs and ipython notebook which lets you generate documents with code and data analysis/visualization. I believe the last part is what the grant is for. Python has been used in scientific and statistical fields a lot lately and ipython notebook is quite useful for that.

benhamner 14y ago

Thrilled to see this. IPython Notebook has become my go-to tool for data munging and analytics. I look forward to seeing the IPython team take it to the next level.

3amOpsGuy 14y ago

IPython is extremely useful. I like the qtconsole feature but i find it less than perfect to install: 1. pip install ipython 2. <system package manager> install qt4 3. pip install pyside / qt4 bindings The better feature, for me anyway, is the notebook interface (it starts a local web server and gives you a rich web guy, somewhat like a Mathematica idea of interactive notebook editing with inline charting etc.) But, that's a whole other bunch of dependencies that aren't in scope when installing ipython. Not sure of the best fix, offer ipython and ipython-full-stack on PyPI?

cdavid 14y ago
If you want qt, I would say your best bet is one of the full python distribution for scientific python, e.g. winPython, python(x, y), EPD, Anaconda. Everybody working on one of this is a user of ipython, and care about the notebook, and most of them have a free version available (free as no cost, not necessarily open source) (disclaimer, I work for Enthought, which sells EPD)
- andybak 14y ago
  The free version of Enthought solved a bunch of problems for me on OSX. It bundles a lot of the binary libraries that are a bitch to compile yourself.
  - cdavid 14y ago
    Glad it is working for you. I have now just started working on it, so let me know if there are things you'd like to see improved.
  - simonh 14y ago
    I've had a Mac at home since 2007 and had a go at doing some python programming on it a few years ago and gave up. I got 2.7 installed, virtualenv, even Qt but eventually a few things broke and I ended up switching to programming in a Linux VM. I might have another go now I've got a shiny new Mini with ML on it. If i have problems I'll give Enthought a try. Given the popularity of OSX with developers it's shocking how few Python libraries have good OSX binary packages. A few times I've found the easiest platform to work on is actually Windows. For example with PySide for a long time the binaries in all the Linux repos were out of date, OSX support was intermittently flaky, but the Windows installer was complete and up to date. Yes I know you can compile from source, but I am a Python programmer. I develop software in Python, not C. I wonder if the poor state of binary packages for OSX is actually because it's a Unix variant. i.e. module developers deliberately choose not to do binary OSX builds because hey, the users can just compile from source. No, we can't all compile from source. We're not all C hackers, that's why many of us use Python in the first place. </entitled rant>

olefoo 14y ago

IPython notebook is actually one of the most interesting developments not just in the python world, but in computing generally. It's the first step towards the fully graphical shell on the internet that many of us have been looking for, whether or not we realize it. Being able to weave together text|markdown, tabular data (in almost any format you want) and images ( whether from matplotlib, raw captures, or synthetic assemblies ) in one environment is very powerful. I suspect that with some additional tools IPython notebook will become the integrators workbench par excellence, useful in many contexts.

andybak 14y ago
It sorely needs some better tutorials, demos. The official docs are dry and dwell on technical matters rather than giving you some sense of the potential. There isn't much else out there - especially if you aren't doing scientific or statistical work. I'm sure the iPython Notebook could be useful in my day to day Python/Django usage but I haven't figured out how yet.
- vitalique 14y ago
  There's a great (but somewhat lengthy) video tutorial[1] from Pycon US'12 that covers a lot of IPython and the Notebook. Highly recommended; it's a live demo by the authors of the tools. Seriously, IPython is the coolest thing that happened to Python since Python, and anyone even slightly interested owes it to himself to play with IPython. [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G5YTlheCbw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G5YTlheCbw
  - andybak 14y ago
    Thanks. Personally I'm allergic to video tutorials but I'm sure that will be great for others.
  - mkarttic 14y ago
    I second this recommendation. Its an awesome demo. I used ipython from before, but barely scratched the surface. Now I use IPython to finish up assignments where the code documents itself, and with extra tex/images to fill in where required. I even 'cheat' sometimes on Project Euler by running problems in parallel using ipython. ;)

slykat 14y ago

I really wish there was an equivalent of IPython in Ruby; it's one of the tools I miss the most from python.

Ip12 14y ago
There is pry for ruby
carreau 14y ago
Hi, The notebook does not care wether or not the language is python,ruby.. or else. As we are mainly python developer the notebook is known for it's python bindings, but the ability to run ruby code is on its way. Cf instruction here https://github.com/ipython/ipython/pull/2643 https://github.com/ipython/ipython/pull/2643 We really would love ruby devs help into packaging and make it seamless to run for user, and any other languages that would wish to join. I actually working on writing a Julia kernel which will be my first encounter with Julia.

hanula 14y ago

Fantastic news, IPython deserves it and can't wait what they will deliver next.

rayk 14y ago

It was great to click through and learn that the funding was a grant. With that kind of a number, I thought they had raised a VC round - not that companies working on open source projects is bad, but it is always nice that they don't have to worry about a business model.

opminion 14y ago

The notebook interface is the natural generalisation of the REPL, and has the potential of being reused and copied by other languages (clojure, JavaScript) just as, in offline form, it has been used in Mathematica and Racket for years.

darkarmani 14y ago
I think the notebook will eventually support other languages behind it.
- takluyver 14y ago
  It should do, yes. The developers of Julia have said that they're going to use the IPython notebook rather than rolling their own interactive interface.

stefanu 14y ago

You can try IPython (shell) and IPython Notebook (web interface) online with Wakari at https://www.wakari.io https://www.wakari.io - platform (with all popular Python scientific libraries installed) that lets you run multiple Python sessions and access them online anywhere. It also allows IPython Notebook sharing - you can share your workflow.

jpratt 14y ago
There's NBCloud (http://notebookcloud.appspot.com http://notebookcloud.appspot.com) if you want to host notebooks on your own Amazon cluster (great for using the parallel computing features). Also, PiCloud (http://www.picloud.com http://www.picloud.com) has a notebooks tab for launching an IPython Notebook as a job. That's useful because it means you can use their compute and data facilities with it easily.

Ip12 14y ago

Congratulations, well deserved

nimrody 14y ago

I would be wonderful if we could re-use the notebook interface for other language - Octave, Julia, R, Ruby. (Would also be nice if building ipython on OS X was easier!)

carreau 14y ago
AS I reply to another comment it is possible and on it's way. for ruby cf https://github.com/ipython/ipython/pull/2643 https://github.com/ipython/ipython/pull/2643 and Julia https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/1330 https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/1330
shared4you 14y ago
Sage Notebook interface can be used for Python, R, Octave, Matlab, Mathematica, LaTeX among others. http://www.sagenb.org http://www.sagenb.org
dmboyd 14y ago
Rmagic and octave magic work pretty well in my experience (which rely on Rpy2 and oct2py)
yen223 14y ago
(Would also be nice if building ipython on OS X was easier!) What issue do you face? Genuinely curious, because I use Mountain Lion, and installing IPython for me simply involves doing pip install ipython I installed Python from source though.
- nimrody 14y ago
  Thanks. It mostly worked. Of course, the real benefit of ipython is the notebook. For that you need (on OS X) brew install python # or just download and install from source pip install numpy pip install matplotlib pip install ipython[zmq,qtconsole,notebook,test] Actually, for qtconsole you need to install Qt and pip install pyside But the latter failed to build on my machine... (Given that Apple's gcc version is ancient and clang is the default compiler on OS X -- it's a wonder the other tools were built correctly)

winter_blue 14y ago

When will we hear about PyPy getting a similar amount of funding? It's a great project, and lack of funding has prevented them from delivering on Py3k.

dalke 14y ago
PyPy had 1,353,000 euro in EU funding, so they have received a similar amount already. However, pypy is also a much more ambitious project, and needs a lot more funding than IPython to achieve its full goals.

Apreche 14y ago

Why does IPython get all the love? I tried it out back in the day, but it was not very impressive. bpython is much better, but doesn't seem to get as much attention.

theorique 14y ago
TIL there is a bpython. Thus (anecdotally) proving your point, I suppose.
takluyver 14y ago
How long ago was 'back in the day'? Development has really picked up since about 2011, and it's become much more than just a shell. IPython has a particular focus on scientific computing, and how we can mix ad-hoc exploratory computing with recorded, repeatable computing, which leads to tools like the notebook. If bpython does what you want, that's great. But the equivalent functionality is just one part of IPython.
dalke 14y ago
I know little about bpython. I have observed that IPython has very good outreach. Fernando Pérez has promoted IPython at many conferences, helped a lot of people, been responsive to requests, active in the Python community, and all of the other factors that help make a successful project. It's also been around longer than bpython. IPython started in 2001 while bpython is from 2009. The current IPython has several GUI interfaces, including through a web browser, with the goal of supporting a graphical notebook with embedded plots and other images. bpython does not support that. There are very few tools in the extended REPL space. I think software developers don't spend as much time on the interactive shell as computational scientists, and those developers that do may augment the shell with, say, the emacs shell rather than develop a new interactive interface. So an early tool which works reasonably well, which has been around for a while, with few competitors, and has outreach and updates based on user needs, will tend to be more widely used.
hogu 14y ago
Do you work in scientific computing? I think if you did, then you would understand - Will bpython allow me to control a cluster of python processes to perform my scientific computation? - Will bpython allow me to create executable documents mixing markdown as well as LaTeX so that I can display mathematical equations? - Does bpython have integrated matplotlib support, so that the GUI thread of matplotlib runs in a separate thread and won't block the interpreter? IPython is much more than just an interactive shell, even though the name doesn't suggest more than that.

RaSoJo 14y ago

This is the awesomest news for the day. It is so much more than a tool purely for the scientific community. I use it for quick fire data analytics codes all the time. Especially when coupled with pandas and matplotlib. pandas can output data in a tabular format directly onto the HTML notebook. If creating forms on the same was a bit more simpler, then it would be biggest boon to a data analyst since excel sheets...dare i say. It would lead to quick fix applications, rapid prototyping for reporting applications. And it can be hosted and shared directly: http://nbviewer.ipython.org/ http://nbviewer.ipython.org/

JacobIrwin 14y ago

hand-written thank you from me is going out tomorrow to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (http://www.sloan.org/contact-us/ http://www.sloan.org/contact-us/)

tdfx 14y ago

I was lucky enough to find IPython early on when I started with Python. I'm constantly amazed with its feature set. Some cool things I found useful: The "run" command for running python scripts: * -t to print timing information * -p to print profiling info from profiler module * -d run the script under pdb interactively (with -b to set line breakpoints) * -n to set __name__ All of these things can be done fairly easily on their own, but doing it through IPython makes the output so much easier to read and work with. Whenever I'm working with data I need to visualize, I like to use: ipython qtconsole --pylab=inline to get a terminal-like window that has inline graphs from matplotlib functions.

ninetax 14y ago
When I try to set __name__ with -n it says it's a bad flag. This is with the shell command. Is there something special I need to do?
- takluyver 14y ago
  You use it inside IPython, with a command like: %run -n foo.py You can't set __name__ to arbitrary values. It's either '__main__' like when running a script, or (with -n) the module name, like when performing an import.

speg 14y ago

This might be a silly question, and perhaps not the place for it, apologies in advance. Love iPython, except for one thing I can't seem to figure out. print "Hello World" hit up arrow to recall previous line, press ctrl+a to try and jump to the beginning of the line but instead my cursor jumps to a new empty line on the right side of the screen? What is going on?! I don't get how this split is supposed to work and it always throws me in it when I least expect it. I just want to do a simple edit to my previous command :(

jonknee 14y ago
Do you have readline installed? Your sequence works as expected for me.
callahad 14y ago
Are you on OS X? IPython is probably finding libedit instead of readline. Try doing an `easy_install readline` before you `pip install ipython` in your virtualenv. It should work just fine, then.

petergx 14y ago

Awesome news! ipython + notebook is amazing.

account_taken 14y ago

I'm surprised Python doesn't get more in return. Google, Pinterest, Disqus, ... all these guys have buku funding and use Python heavily. Why not show Python some love? Make the VM up to par with V8.

rd108 14y ago

Congratulations, guys. Excellent work and I love Ipython :)