But that's something of a solved problem. IPython offers a rich
interactive environment, for people who find the limitations of the
standard interactive prompt frustrating. Would it be worth the
standard Python documentation promoting IPython for that role?

+1 iPython really makes it easier to do exploratory code -- I have my students install it day one of an intro to python class.

However, maybe ironically, iPython is still a bit ugly for editing multi-line constructs -- maybe it will get better.

The Jupyter (formally iPython) notebook is the way to go for that, but it has its other downsides...

[2] My apologies to anyone whose proposal was *not* based around
interactive use cases.

folks DO like compact code, regardless of context :-)

-CHB

Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
Oceanographer

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Chris.Barker@noaa.gov