[IPython-dev] Comments about IPython.frontend, getting ready for merge of ipython-sync-frontend

[Barry Wark]

On Fri, Aug 8, 2008 at 5:36 AM, Fernando Perez <fperez.net at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Barry,
>
> On Thu, Aug 7, 2008 at 4:36 PM, Barry Wark <barrywark at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Brian et al.,
>>
>> I don't have time to give your comments the time they deserve tonight
>> so I wanted to just weigh in quickly on merging Gael's branch before
>> the upcoming release. There are some significant changes I want to
>> make to the frontendbase interface, mainly making the concept of a
>> execution block more explicit, but I realize Gael has made great
>> progress with his branch that diverged before I made those changes. I
>> think the synchronous frontend should be merged in for the release if
>> possible. I will hold of on my changes until the release has settled
>> and we have time to evaluate how the newer frontend architecture. I
>> have just one other comment, in line below, for the moment and will
>> try to get you a more proper response soon.
>
> Do you have a sense of how serious the conflicts are?  I've marked
> Gael's branch and my testing one 'for merge' so we can easily see the
> differences.

Besides trivial chanes (e.g. spliitting frontendbase into frontendbase
and asyncfrontendbase et al), the most significant diff between Gael's
branch and mine is that I've made the concept of an execution Block
more explicit. Instead of just an input string, a block is now an
object containing prompts, input and output as well as, possibly,
sub-blocks. The Block maps, conceptually, pretty directly to a
Mathematica notebook cell (you can see the Block definition in my
ipython-frontend2 brach:IPython/frontend/frontendbase.py). I believe
that the API for FrontEndBase can be made largely backwards
compatible, but some of the internal implementation must change to
support passing around Blocks instead of just strings.

OK, so I'd say the conflicts will not be too serious. They may be
serious enough to merge one at a time, especially working up to a
release. I'll hold off on my branch until things settle out from
Gael's merge.

>
> And will you be attending SciPy?  It seems Brian will be there, and so
> will Gael and Stefan, so we may have a bunch of people simultaneously
> available to discuss and hack (and anyone else on the list who will
> make it to scipy is obviously welcome!).

Unfortunately, I can't make it. I'd be happy to check in remotely
(Skype etc.) while you all are working if that makes sense.

>
> Cheers,
> f
>