[IPython-dev] ANN: IPython 0.6.5 is out.

[Fernando Perez]

Hi all,

I'm glad to announce the release of IPython 0.6.6.  IPython's homepage is at:

http://ipython.scipy.org

and downloads are at:

http://ipython.scipy.org/dist

I've provided RPMs (Py2.2 and 2.3), plus source downloads (.tar.gz and .zip).

Debian, Fink and BSD packages for this version should be coming soon, as the 
respective maintainers (many thanks to Jack Moffit, Andrea Riciputi and Dryice 
Liu) have the time to follow their packaging procedures.

Many thanks to Enthought for their continued hosting support for IPython, and 
to all the users who contributed ideas, fixes and reports.


Release notes
-------------

This release was made to fix a few crashes recently found by users, and also 
to keep compatibility with matplotlib, whose internal namespace structure was 
recently changed.

* Adapt to matplotlib's new name convention, where the matlab-compatible 
module is called pylab instead of matlab.  The change should be transparent to 
all users, so ipython 0.6.6 will work both with existing matplotlib versions 
(which use the matlab name) and the new versions (which will use pylab instead).

* Don't crash if pylab users have a non-threaded pygtk and they attempt to use 
the GTK backends.  Instead, print a decent error message and suggest a few 
alternatives.

* Improved printing of docstrings for classes and instances.  Now, class, 
constructor and instance-specific docstrings are properly distinguished and 
all printed.  This should provide better functionality for matplotlib.pylab 
users, since matplotlib relies heavily on class/instance docstrings for 
end-user information.

* New timing functionality added to %run.  '%run -t prog' will time the 
execution of prog.py.  Not as fancy as python's timeit.py, but quick and easy 
to use.  You can optionally ask for multiple runs.

* Improved (and faster) verbose exeptions, with proper reporting of dotted 
variable names (this had been broken since ipython's beginnings).

* The IPython.genutils.timing() interface changed, now the repetition number 
is not a parameter anymore, fixed to 1 (the most common case).  timings() 
remains unchanged for multiple repetitions.

* Added ipalias() similar to ipmagic(), and simplified their interface.  They 
now take a single string argument, identical to what you'd type at the ipython 
command line.  These provide access to aliases and magics through a python 
function call, for use in nested python code (the special alias/magic syntax 
only works on single lines of input).

* Fix an obscure crash with recursively embedded ipythons at the command line.

* Other minor fixes and cleanups, both to code and documentation.


The NEWS file can be found at http://ipython.scipy.org/NEWS, and the full 
ChangeLog at http://ipython.scipy.org/ChangeLog.


Enjoy, and as usual please report any problems.

Regards,

Fernando.