[IPython-dev] cell magics
Fernando Perez
fperez.net at gmail.com
Sat Feb 16 14:51:14 EST 2013
On Sat, Feb 16, 2013 at 11:15 AM, Thomas Kluyver <takowl at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 16 February 2013 18:48, Fernando Perez <fperez.net at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> It's important to know that this is a perfect example of correlation
>> not being causation: we could have added the cell magics once we had
>> the qtconsole, we just didn't have the time/resources for it. All
>> that's needed for cell magics to make sense is a practical multi-line
>> client, which we only had once the qt console was functional.
>
>
> Technically, I quite agree. But from a user perspective, I think the
> notebook made the need for something like cell magics much more pressing
> than the Qt console.
And more useful! But it's important for users to understand how the
abstractions fit together, because I regularly get questions that stem
from users confusing the roles the notebook and the kernel play. The
cell magics may shine brightest in the notebook for user experience
reasons, but they are a feature whose implementation lives 100% inside
the kernel, and which is therefore available to all clients.
Just yesterday I had a discussion with Matthew about some issues with
%%bash where I had to make precisely this clarification. A solution
he was proposing was based on just this kind of blurring/confusion
between client and kernel that I am trying to dispel.
Cheers,
f
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