
Why IPy: reasons for using IPython interactively - ZygmuntZ
http://fastml.com/why-ipy-reasons-for-using-ipython-interactively/
======
paulgb
IPython's built-in notebook mode (ipython notebook) entirely changed how I use
Python. It's like an interactive session you can go save, reproduce, and
publish.

~~~
Derbasti
Yes, and a hundred times yes for teaching.

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matmann2001
IPython is great, but that was the most unconvincing article I've ever read.

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doug1001
i've been a moderate fan of ipython; it's the ipython notebook that changed
everything for me.

i can have everything inline: syntax-highlignted code, markdown, dynamic
plots, and LaTeX equations.

(some examples:
[http://nbviewer.ipython.org/github/ipython/ipython/blob/mast...](http://nbviewer.ipython.org/github/ipython/ipython/blob/master/examples/notebooks/SymPy%20Examples.ipynb))

what's more, you can share you work as a static .ipynb document or dynamically
via a server (rather than your localhost, which is the default).

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alexberghage
The shell exec magic, especially when combined with notebook mode and pylab
inline, can make some simple analyses of text data really dead simple. You
can, for example, do something like:

    
    
        my_data = !find . | grep .log | xargs grep interesting_event | awk '{print $3}'
        map(float, my_data)
        hist(my_data, 12)
    

Which will dump out a nice pretty 12-bin histogram of whatever the numeric
data in the third column of output, of messages containing interesting_event
was. To get this sort of fancy, run `ipython notebook --pylab=inline` and
enjoy!

EDIT: for context, I wind up using this all the time to tease out information
from Riak logs, like how long Bitcask merges take, in aggregate, and for
locating particular events in time and characterizing their frequency.

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Walkman
I don't get why is this on front page. IPython is awesome, enough said. If you
are not using it, you are doing it wrong.

~~~
randlet
The IPython debugger ipdb also makes a great replacement for the builtin pdb.

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yeukhon
I use IPython whenever possible. But I recently started looking at DreamPie
([http://www.dreampie.org/](http://www.dreampie.org/)) because I was getting
tired of the interpreter line break mode. I'd like to write in a text-file
mode and then run. I know I can do this with Vim already but maybe I am just
too noob running Python from vim sometimes crash my program or accidentally
enter some hell state I can't re-enter my file. I am giving DreamPie a try
now.

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akanet
I use IPython for the interactive python part of
[https://coderpad.io](https://coderpad.io) \- being able to run a block of
code and drop you into a REPL on an exception with full syntax coloring and
context is killer.

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overgard
How does ipy work with virtual envs? I've always admired the feature list, but
my assumption is that it doesn't really run in a virtual env, would that be
accurate?

~~~
nsfmc
it works fine with virtualenvs, on osx, you can do

    
    
        virtualenv env
        . ./env/bin/activate
        easy_install readline
        pip install ipython
    

on linux, you can avoid the readline install. i have no idea what the windows
scene is, but at least for the past four or so years, i've never had a problem
with virtualenvs and ipython.

~~~
brunomlopes
On windows it's the same. Although I think I usually install ipython outside
of virtualenvs, because I tend to always use it.

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vonseel
%paste is a nifty but simple trick that I find really useful

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mataug
One of my colleagues hates IPython for no particular reason, he prefers using
the standard python shell.

