[IPython-dev] Quick question out of interest...

Osborn, Raymond rosborn at anl.gov
Sun Jan 26 17:33:40 EST 2014


I'm generally a fan of minimalist UIs, but we also went for the three-panel approach in NeXpy <http://nexpy.github.io/nexpy/>, which is a new PySide application for viewing and analyzing x-ray and neutron scattering data stored in the NeXus format. One panel is an IPython shell, the other a Matplotlib pane, and the third a tree view of the currently loaded NeXus files, that is synchronized to the IPython shell dictionary.

The reason for adding the tree view is to help the user keep track of the data they are manipulating and plotting. When we are combining lots of different data files in a joint analysis, it becomes difficult keeping track of their names and current states. The goal is to allow the power user the complete freedom provided by the shell while giving new users a few handy GUI shortcuts, e.g., double-clicking on a dataset in the tree to plot it.

Ray

________________________________
From: ipython-dev-bounces at scipy.org [ipython-dev-bounces at scipy.org] on behalf of Carl Smith [carl.input at gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, January 24, 2014 7:26 PM
To: IPython developers list
Subject: [IPython-dev] Quick question out of interest...

Hi all

When looking at the popular scientific computing environments for Python, there seems to be a trend for building dense UIs, with lots of buttons and about three panels, much like Eclipse. IPython is far more minimalistic, wrapping most features with textual interfaces and providing a relatively linear UI.

Does anyone here who uses the tools with the Eclipse style interfaces, such as Wakari, Spyder and Canopy, have a few minutes to explain any benefits they find in working through those types of user interfaces?

This question isn't entirely academic. I'm casually hoping to learn something about UI design.

Thank you, and as ever, all the best with IPython.

Carl
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/ipython-dev/attachments/20140126/e4c74300/attachment.html>


More information about the IPython-dev mailing list