[IPython-dev] Cell magics and extensions

[Thomas Kluyver]

> One pro of having them in IPython is that our test machinery
> makes it easy to write tests for them.

We should work out a simple way to test third party extensions - I
think it should be as simple as a couple of lines of setup code, but
we should check that and put it in our extension docs.

> * Where should users host standalone magics?  Should we create a
> separate repo?  Gists?  Let the user decide?

Gists would be a neat solution, but unfortunately I can't see a way to
get a URL which points to the latest version of a file in a gist. I
think for now it's up to extension writers, but we should offer a list
on the wiki with names, URLs and brief descriptions.

>  - We should ship cell magics that a good fraction of IPython's users
> will use.  So things like cythonmagic, shell, file, or sympyprinting
> definitely makes sense.  Not sure if the dot or heirarchy ones make
> sense.

I think dot is a fairly specialised need. %hierarchy is perhaps more
generally relevant, but I'm not sure how often it would actually be
useful. I've suggested to the author that it start out as a separate
extension, and if it's widely used, we could ship it with IPython in
future.

Thanks,
Thomas