[IPython-dev] what goes wrong with %%file

[W. Trevor King]

On Sun, May 12, 2013 at 09:56:57AM -0400, Greg Wilson wrote:
> If I have a file called 'data.txt' on my hard drive, and put:
> 
> %%file data.txt
> 
> in a cell and then execute it, 'data.txt' is overwritten and the data is 
> lost.  Everyone (including me, when I'm forgetful) expects this to load 
> and display the existing file content if the file exists, just like an 
> editor would.

Maybe the current %%file magic should be renamed to %%save-file, and
you're expecting a (currently unimplemented?) %%open-file.  I don't
like the idea of mandatory interactivity.  It looks like there was
previous work in this direction (234309d, ask_yes_no on %%file
overwrite, 2012-06-05), but it was dropped in d0c569e (%%file always
overwrites, 2012-06-09).  The commit message doesn't elaborate on the
motivation for dropping the interactivity.

Cheers,
Trevor

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