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

Brian Granger ellisonbg at gmail.com
Sun May 12 19:20:05 EDT 2013


I haven't following this too closely, but my initial thought is that
all of this is sounding too complex.  Let's keep it simple -
remembering that the notebook app will eventually have a full blown
file editor in a separate window.

On Sun, May 12, 2013 at 3:38 PM, Matt Davis <jiffyclub at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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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-- 
Brian E. Granger
Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo
bgranger at calpoly.edu and ellisonbg at gmail.com



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