[IPython-dev] Should we disable autocall by default from now on?

Brian Granger ellisonbg at gmail.com
Wed Nov 30 17:40:57 EST 2011


LOL,  I just had a research student come to my office hours with a
notebook.  She has been working in Python/IPython for 10 weeks now.
In her notebook she had a line:

plot e1

Which worked due to autocall.  But she had absolutely no idea why this
worked (isn't it similar to "print 10").  In her mind, IPython=Python.
 My options at that point:

* Explain the whole autocall thing to her.  No way, her cognitive load
was already maxed out trying to understand the physics and code.
* Silently let it be.  No way, then she think that this is vald Python
syntax and will start using everywhere even in library code.
* Have her change it, but don't tell her exactly why.  This is what I
did, but she is still left with the vague sense that this syntax also
works in *Python* but is not the best way of doing things.

I maintain that the autocall syntax is confusing unless you take the
time to really understand what is going on.  And if you have done
that, you are not a beginner.  This confusion exists even without the
potential pitfalls related to properties and attribute access.  Add
those pitfalls and you have significant potential for confusion.



On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 1:50 PM, Robert Kern <robert.kern at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 11/30/11 8:12 PM, MinRK wrote:
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 11:56, Fernando Perez <fperez.net at gmail.com
>> <mailto:fperez.net at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>     On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 11:45 AM, Aaron Meurer <asmeurer at gmail.com
>>     <mailto:asmeurer at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>      > So personally, I don't think autocall is friendly to beginner users
>>      > even as it is now, for the simple reason that it changes the syntax of
>>      > Python.
>>
>>     Yes, there seems to be consensus that autocall should be an expert
>>     tool, and therefore it would be OK to make the default be off.  The
>>     defaults should be chosen to make ipython as beginner-friendly as
>>     possible (while still being more useful than the >>> shell).  Experts
>>     are expected to tweak their config to suit their personal preferences
>>     (e.g., I'll always keep autocall on in 'smart' mode).
>>
>>
>> I think it's exactly the opposite.  autocall is very much a beginner tool, for
>> users who have not yet
>> committed Python's syntax to memory.  When they make simple typos, autocall
>> helps remind them by saying,
>> "I know what you meant, but here's how you should do it in the future".
>
> But that's not really what the feature does, or what it was intended to do. It
> was added solely for the experienced user named Fernando who liked to type
> things fast without needing to use the shift keys. It was not a do-what-I-mean
> to correct newbie errors. There is certainly nothing in the message that implies
> that you *should* type things differently.
>
> --
> 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
>
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-- 
Brian E. Granger
Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo
bgranger at calpoly.edu and ellisonbg at gmail.com



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