[IPython-dev] Status of ipy_pretty and ipy_traits_completer?

[Robert Kern]

On 2009-10-08 17:25 PM, Brian Granger wrote:

> Summary: I want people to have to ask on list about the status of things in
> quarantine/deathrow.

A sentence or two in the organization doc to that effect would work well. But 
tomorrow on a not-your-son's-birth-day. :-)

> The slightly more involved part is that the way the config variables are
> handled will
> need to be changed.  I don't mind doing this as an example if you can
> wait until tomorrow
> (my son's 4th B-day is today!).  But, one question: once
> the extension is activated, who does a user activate a custom displayer
> for a type?
> By calling for_type/for_type_by_name (which are injected into the userns)?

I assumed people would usually do configure this in what used to be 
ipy_user_conf.py. They would import IPython.external.pretty and call the 
functions there. I don't think for_type/for_type_by_name are particularly useful 
in the userns. A pair of push/pop %magics that manages a stack built on top of 
for_type would be pretty useful, though. Push a verbose printer to look at 
particular type in depth, then pop it off to go back to the less noisy mode. Or 
vice versa: push a summ...ng printer for lists, for example, to get a look at 
"the big picture" in a larger object hierarchy. But without the ability to pop, 
I don't see a reason to put for_type into the namespace.

-- 
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
  that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
  an underlying truth."
   -- Umberto Eco