[IPython-dev] Some minor issues with iPython 0.11 on Python 2.6.4

[Fernando Perez]

Hi Pim,

On Mon, Jan 4, 2010 at 1:41 AM, Pim Schellart <p.schellart at gmail.com> wrote:
> I just wanted to mention some minor problems with IPython 0.11 running on
> Python 2.6.4.
> The first (and most important) issue is a bug (reported as bug 488061 on
> launchpad).
> If you use list=!command you get deprecation warnings because the popen
> command is deprecated in favor of the subprocess module.
> I have submitted a patch for this bug but until now of now it is unassigned.

Now applied, thanks for the fix!

> The other issues are minor.
> I would like tab autocomplete to behave the same way as the shell (e.g.
> bash). The current behavior lists all files as options when I hit tab to
> complete the name of the parent directory.
> The current default of asking the user to list or not when to many files are
> present violates the principle of minimal input that all unix programs share
> (e.g. rm is default instead of rm -i) which slows down a typical workflow.
> Also the distinction between two different types of behavior depending on
> the number of files in a directory is confusing.
> Furthermore when there are not so many files present and the completion
> shows the list immedately it scrolls (the output of) your previous commands
> off the screen (which means you often have to scroll back to see their
> results).
> I usually tend to have thousands of data files in my work directories and so
> I have to type 'n' whenever I change directories which is quite annoying :).
> So in conclusion I would like tab to not complete past a '/' and only list
> all possible completions with a second hit of the tab key.

Yes, this is annoying, listed here as bug already:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ipython/+bug/299821

We're now making good progress on trunk, and my hope is that it will
make it easier for others to contribute further, so that we can get
more fixes coming... But this is indeed annoying, thanks for reminding
us (I might have a quick go at it if turns out to be an easy fix).

> The final issue is that the current IPython puts an empty line before each
> prompt.
> While this might improve readability in some cases more often it is a waste
> of screen space.
> In particular when using clear the first line of the terminal is blank.
> I would prefer again to stick to the default of most shells and remove the
> empty line.

This you can already control, it's the prompt separator variable in
your config file.  With our shiny new config system, simply put in
your ~/.ipython/ipython_config.py file:

c = get_config()
c.InteractiveShell.separate_in = ''

and presto, you're done!

> Please take these remarks as mere suggestions.
> In general I like IPython a lot and I hope to see it evolve into an ever
> more useful tool.

Thanks for the kind words!

Cheers,

f