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

[Matt Davis]

I agree with Thomas that %%overwrite won't be a natural choice when the
file doesn't already exist. I think %%filesave or %%writefile would be good
choices.

- Matt


On Sun, May 12, 2013 at 3:28 PM, Thomas Kluyver <takowl at gmail.com> wrote:

> Not convinced by %%overwrite:
> - It doesn't make much sense when the file doesn't already exist
> - It should be usable the other way round as well - you know what you want
> to do (save some text to a file), find the quickest way to do that.
>
> My vote would be %%writefile.
>
> Thomas
>
>
> On 12 May 2013 22:56, Greg Wilson <gvwilson at third-bit.com> wrote:
>
>> On 2013-05-12 5:33 PM, Fernando Perez wrote:
>> > Mmh,  %%overwrite... I didn't like it too much when I first saw it,
>> > but it's growing on me, and it has the advantage of being unambiguous
>> > about the destructive nature of the action.
>> >
>> Could we do a simple usability test in the spirit of
>> http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2000-July/006427.html and
>> http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2000-July/006098.html to
>> find out what users would expect each alternative to do? I've included a
>> very rough first cut below (which looks better with a monospaced font :-)
>> Thanks,
>> Greg
>>
>> --------------------
>>
>> You have a directory called 'data' that contains two files:
>>
>> * 'fish.csv' contains 160 lines of observations in comma-separated
>>    values format.
>> * 'site.txt' contains 20 lines of text describing the site where you
>>    collected data (in plain English).
>> * 'weather.txt' contains half a dozen lines of text about the weather
>>    during your site visit.
>>
>> You run the IPython Notebook in that directory and do the operations
>> described below.  What does the Notebook display when each cell
>> command is run (in the order shown, with all of the cell content typed
>> in before the cell is run), and what changes does it make inside the
>> 'data' directory and/or the files it contains when each cell is run?
>>
>> 1. +----------------------------------------+
>>     |%%load fish.csv                         |
>>     +----------------------------------------+
>>
>> 2. +----------------------------------------+
>>     |%%display fish.csv                      |
>>     +----------------------------------------+
>>
>> 3. +----------------------------------------+
>>     |%%file site.txt                         |
>>     +----------------------------------------+
>>
>> 4. +----------------------------------------+
>>     |%%file weather.txt                      |
>>     |Generally sunny, but on the last day    |
>>     |we had torrential rain followed by a    |
>>     |meteorite shower.                       |
>>     +----------------------------------------+
>>
>> 5. +----------------------------------------+
>>     |%%overwrite site.txt                    |
>>     +----------------------------------------+
>>
>> 6. +----------------------------------------+
>>     |%%overwrite site.txt                    |
>>     |Typical riverbank site, some signs of   |
>>     |recent erosion due to road-building,    |
>>     |plus traces of metallic iridium left    |
>>     |behind by the mothership.               |
>>     +----------------------------------------+
>>
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>>
>
>
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