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

[Fernando Perez]

On Wed, May 15, 2013 at 1:09 PM, MinRK <benjaminrk at gmail.com> wrote:
> With the exception of `%%cat file.txt`, since a cell magic that *reads* a
> file doesn't make sense. We could add `%cat`, though that's a duplicate of
> the already existing *alias* `cat`.

I'm also -1 on cat for this, we don't want to have to explain shell
redirection to understand an ipython magic.

The problem with %%file is that it's easily mis-interpreted (and has
been) by novice users, in that regard cat wouldn't be much
improvement.

A name that's fairly self-explanatory is what we want, even though we
can't seem to find one everybody likes...