[Numpy-discussion] [SciPy-user] Getting started wiki page

[Robert Kern]

Brian Hawthorne wrote:
> Seems like it might be convenient for IPython to detect if matplotlib is
> installed and if it is then to use pylab mode by default (unless
> specified otherwise with a switch like -nopylab).

That's a bad idea. IPython has some magic, but it shouldn't be that magical.
Just because a package is installed doesn't mean that the user wants it loaded
every time with GUI threads and all of the other finicky stuff that comes along
with -pylab.

IPython is a general purpose tool, not a front end to matplotlib.

-- 
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
 that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
 an underlying truth."
  -- Umberto Eco