Yes, I just started playing with it, too, and would like to hear ideas. The notebook model is really cool and, I think, would at least be helpful for teaching others to code.



There's also an iRuby port.



Jason

------ Original message ------
From: Roy Tennant
Date: 12/19/2013 11:54 AM
To: [log in to unmask];
Subject:[CODE4LIB] Anyone working with iPython?


Our Wikipedian in Residence, Max Klein brought iPython [1] to my attention
recently and even in just the little exploration I've done with it so far
I'm quite impressed. Although you could call it "interactive Python" that
doesn't begin to put across the full range of capabilities, as when I first
heard that I thought "Great, a Python shell where you enter a command, hit
the return, and it executes. Great. Just what I need. NOT." But I was SO
WRONG.

It certainly can and does do that, but also so much more. You can enter
blocks of code that then execute. Those blocks don't even have to be
Python. They can be Ruby or Perl or bash. There are built-in functions of
various kinds that it (oddly) calls "magic". But perhaps the killer bit is
the idea of "Notebooks" that can capture all of your work in a way that is
also editable and completely web-ready. This last part is probably
difficult to understand until you experience it.

Anyway, i was curious if others have been working with it and if so, what
they are using it for. I can think of all kinds of things I might want to
do with it, but hearing from others can inspire me further, I'm sure.
Thanks,
Roy

[1] http://ipython.org/