[IPython-dev] User configuration in recent IPython

[Brian Granger]

On Fri, May 14, 2010 at 11:18 AM, Gael Varoquaux
<gael.varoquaux at normalesup.org> wrote:
> On Fri, May 14, 2010 at 11:15:28AM -0700, Brian Granger wrote:
>> You can use the %install_default_config magic to install the default
>> config files.
>
> Right, but why not do this by default: the user has to find out all this
> and I bet only a fraction of users will put the effort.

The finding/resolution of config files in IPython is actually quite
complicated already (this  is an understatement!).  Copying the config
file automatically adds another layer of complexity that I don't think
is wise to introduce at this point - especially because we are still
fine tuning the new config system.  But, in the long run, I think this
is something we might want to revisit.

> With the old system only a tiny fraction of users actually edited the
> default configuration file to change the colors, eventhough they were
> getting unreadable colors on white backgrounds. So adding one step is
> just going to loose more users.

Not sure I agree with that.  Many of the tools we use (git,
matplotlib) don't create a default config file.  I agree it could be
better documented though.

Cheers,

Brian

> My 2 cents,
>
> Gaël
>



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