[IPython-dev] SciPy Sprint summary

[Brian Granger]

Hello all,

We wanted to updated everyone on the IPython sprint at SciPy 2010.  We
had lots of people sprinting on IPython (something like 7-10), which
was fantastic.  Here are some highlights:

* A number of us worked on PyZMQ itself, to prepare for IPython's
relying on it more and more.
* Justin Riley added a nice example to PyZMQ that uses 0MQ sockets to
talk to a MongoDB based key-value store.
* Min Ragan-Kelley and Brian Granger added a Tornado compatible event
loop to PyZMQ.  This event loop will help us refactor the Twisted
using parts of IPython to use PyZMQ instead.
* Min created a nice PyZMQ based log handler for the logging module.
This makes it easy to build distributed logging systems using the
publish/subscript sockets of 0MQ.  We will be using this throughout
IPython.
* We spent a considerable amount of time discussing how to port the
IPython parallel computing platform from Twisted to PyZMQ.  Min
started coding a prototype task controller using PyZMQ.
* Justin Riley created a very nice diagram illustrating the design of
the new PyZMQ based kernel/frontend architecture for IPython.
* Everyone helped code a new interface that will allow various IPython
frontends to interact with the IPython kernel using PyZMQ.
* Fernando Perez and Jonathan March worked on the git workflow and on
getting Jonathan set up for patch management.
* Fernando Perez and Robert Kern worked on the message specification
for the JSON message format will are starting to use.

Much of this work will be hitting master over the summer.  Thanks to
everyone for helping out and I apologize if I forgot anyone or
anything.

Cheers,

Brian

-- 
Brian E. Granger, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Physics
Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo
bgranger at calpoly.edu
ellisonbg at gmail.com