[IPython-dev] Ascii imshow

[Fernando Perez]

On Thu, Feb 10, 2011 at 12:21 PM, Brian Granger <ellisonbg at gmail.com> wrote:
> * While I think this is incredibly cool, I am not sure this belongs in
> IPython.  Two reasons for this: i) it is useful for people outside of
> IPython and ii) plotting/viz is outside the scope of IPython.  I think
> a much better place for this would be a standalone module or
> matplotlib (imagine a terminal based backend!).

While I really hope MPL gets an ascii backend at some point, that's a
lot more work.  I don't know if Nicolas is up for it :)  I think it's
OK to have it in ipython in the sense that it's small, useful code for
terminal use.  While it's true that we're not in the data viz
business, we're in the business of making a really good interactive
environment, and the terminal is one of our strengths.

Something this small, left to live on its own, is much less likely to
get noticed/used than if we ship it and everyone benefits from it
right away.  I think of this as something much like our qt console
matplotlib support: something to seamlessly make ipython that much
better for heavy numpy/scientific users.

> * If it does go into IPython, the proper directory would be lib, not
> extensions.  IPython/extensions is for IPython extensions that adhere
> to the official IPython extension API.

Yes, my initial email was written with lib/, and then I backtracked
and thought of it as an extension.  But the api point is spot-on, so
lib it is.

Cheers,

f