[IPython-dev] Revival of %store (pspersistence)?

[Robert Kern]

[PS to everyone: I am on the mailing list. Do not Cc me!]

On 11/1/10 3:34 PM, Ville M. Vainio wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 1, 2010 at 7:24 PM, Robert Kern<robert.kern at gmail.com>  wrote:
>
>> Personally, I dislike the %store functionality as it is currently written. Among
>> other things, I don't like that it restores all of the variables at the start of
>> the session. Every time I've used it, I've forgotten about the %stored variables
>> until I begin to investigate why it takes ipython so long to start up.
>
> The answer is not to use it for large data.
>
> I regularly use it for small things like strings, macros and aliases
> and haven't noticed any slowdowns.

Ah. I was using it for large data because it was a convenient way to restart a 
fresh IPython for new code without having to recalculate the data. I thought 
that's what it was for.

There are two good features being intermingled by %store: persistence of IPython 
objects like macros and aliases, and the persistence of user data. I would 
suggest that the former should be built in to IPython as part of the 
configuration system. The latter ought to live in an extension and needs to grow 
some more features from the current %store implementation.

-- 
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