[IPython-dev] cell magics

[Jason Grout]

On 2/16/13 4:07 PM, Jason Grout wrote:
> (b) the bash-like syntax is just as powerful.  But it's certainly not.
> With a bash-like syntax that isn't valid python code, but just a string,
> I cannot pass in python objects directly.  I can do that if my
> parameters are valid python syntax.  This is a lesson IPython learned
> when it decided on a rich pyout/display_data/stream output system
> instead of just passing on a stdout string.  It makes sense to apply
> that same lesson here to the string decorator inputs.

Another point on this.  Since we use straight python instead of a custom 
string-based syntax, we can do:

k=4
%timeit(runs=k) 2+3

or

%timeit(setup="x=%s"%random.random())
x+4

Using straight python instead of a custom string-based file format is 
something I learned from IPython when you guys made your config files 
actually just python files.  I find it somewhat ironic now that you are 
arguing against making something more pythonic, and implicitly rejecting 
the programmability and power of having a pythonic syntax :).

Thanks,

Jason