
Pineapple – A standalone front end to IPython for Mac - coldtea
http://nwhitehead.github.io/pineapple/
======
maliker
If you prefer a front end that doesn't bundle its own Python version, I made a
simple one:

[https://github.com/dpinney/iPythonNotebookServer](https://github.com/dpinney/iPythonNotebookServer)

------
oliyoung
IPython seems really uniquely Python, does a similar “live documentation” tool
exist for other languages? I get that Python's usage/culture produces amazing
tools like this, but is there anything unique about the language that stops it
being ported to JS/Ruby/PHP/C# et al?

~~~
nippoo
The IPython team are doing just that, and have renamed the IPython project
"Jupyter", refactoring all the Python-specific code away into another
repository and allowing it to be ported to many other languages: currently
over 40 of them. For obvious reasons, interpreted languages are much easier
than mandatorily pre-compiled ones... [http://jupyter.org](http://jupyter.org)

------
wodenokoto
Does it support any text editing features? Compared to anybody's favorite
dedicated text editor (vim/emacs/sublime/atom/notepad++) editing in jupyther
is quite tedious.

~~~
rattray
Why is that?

~~~
niels_olson
because there are no key bindings aimed at the text editing areas and I can't
even drop into vimium because there are so many potential key binding
conflicts.

~~~
kawera
Look under Help > Keyboard shortcuts. Not many but it helps.

------
geyang
Check out Escherpad! It is a real-time collaborative iPython notebook client
that just came out today. It somehow didn't make it to the front page at all.

Escherpad support Python, Node.js, and has setup tutorials that allows you to
setup a npm packages locally.

[http://lesquare.escherpad.com/@yang.ge/A-Collaborative-
Real-...](http://lesquare.escherpad.com/@yang.ge/A-Collaborative-Real-time-
iPython-Jupyter-Client-for-Self-hosted-Jupyter-Servers-tcwtda0jqgbb)

------
rattray
This looks like an absolutely terrific tool for people learning programming,
especially those with numerical interests. I'd also be extremely excited to
use it myself.

Are there plans for Pineapple to work with multiple language backends (eg;
IJulia, IHaskell, IElixir, etc)? Especially with one-click installs for the
languages, it would be such a wonderful way to play around with new languages
without having to muck about with installations.

~~~
scott_karana
Since multiple language backends are exactly the plan for Jupyter, the project
that this wraps in the GUI, I suspect that it will be doable! If we're lucky,
we might even get official support someday :-)

------
anderspitman
Very cool. I don't have a Mac to test it out on, but is there an easy way
(integrated pip, conda) to install additional packages? IMO a graphical
interface for finding and installing packages would add a huge amount of
value. Also here's a link to the source repo:
[https://github.com/nwhitehead/pineapple](https://github.com/nwhitehead/pineapple)

~~~
nwhitehead
Yes, there is a way to install more packages. Inside the notebook you can do
"import pineapple", then "%require NAME" which is just like doing "pip install
NAME". There is also a provided pip shell script that should work but it's
buried deep inside the Pineapple.app directory and not well tested.

These methods work for pure Python packages. If the package needs compiling
then there are more caveats and it may or may not work depending on your
system. I'm looking into including conda directly to increase compatibility
with prebuilt binaries and make package management easier.

~~~
kawera
Thanks, terrific tool! The ability to just drop a dmg is invaluable when
teaching.

Compatibility with more prebuilt binaries would be great indeed (tried to
install psycopg2 but it doesn't work)

------
tr4s
The GUI is nice, but it does not support an external Python installation.
Meaning no conda, limted support for virualenvs etc.

------
hurin
How does this compare to feature-wise to jupyter (other than being a native
app)?

~~~
MrSlo
It seems that its just running the Jupyter notebook and loading it in a
"WebView"

------
mrmondo
Nice! Would be good if it was on homebrew.

------
superfx
I wish they didn't bundle a python installation with it. I'd rather just try
the frontend without potentially messing up my python installation.

~~~
ubernostrum
Given how IPython Notebook has been adopted, bundling is basically the only
option. Its popularity is highest in the scientific-Python world, which has
been Windows-focused because of the availability and ease-of-use of pre-built
single-download stacks of Python plus all the relevant libraries (numpy,
scipy, etc.).

Giving those folks the ability to use Macs too is a huge deal (and "just
install things yourself" isn't really an option -- it's gotten better, but
numpy and scipy have historically been the very devil to manually install on
any platform other than Windows).

~~~
numlocked
Anaconda/conda has made the scipy and numpy install process pretty pleasant on
OSX. 'conda install scipy' just works the way you would expect.

[http://conda.pydata.org/miniconda.html](http://conda.pydata.org/miniconda.html)

~~~
niels_olson
I would even go a step further and say that probably more than 50% of
scientists have a Mac laptop as their personal computer at this point. In DoD,
I can't install _anything_ in my office computer. So if I hadn't had iPython
up and running on my mac, there's no way I'd have gotten to the point (over
years) of going to present a project to the HPC guys on Monday.

Very, very glad Anaconda exists.

------
isherwood91
Nested menus look to be having issues

------
scott_karana
Hey vladsanchez: not sure if you'll see this, but your posts appear to have
been shadowbanned for 1300 days... :(

(in reference to this:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10235320](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10235320),
and probably caused by this:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3356399](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3356399))

~~~
vladsanchez
Wow! I'm quite surprised by this. I must have ruffled someone with DemiGod
status at HN. I'm a huge HN fan and mostly silent observant, and I seldom
comment on anything. Notice how old the second comment is (1300+ days ~= over
3.5 yrs)! It's absurd, but I have no control about it. I'd be surprised if my
this comment gets even posted. Thanks for the info scott.

~~~
scott_karana
Looks like your posts have been un-deaded! :-)

------
Rondom
Hmm.. There is already another project with the same pronunciation.
[https://pypi.python.org/pypi/PyNLPl/](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/PyNLPl/)

~~~
scott_karana
Dunno that anyone is going to get an NLP library confused with an OSX frontend
to Jupyter... there's not a lot of overlap. :-)

(Admittedly, you could use PyNLPI within Pineapple, but again, distinct
products)

------
vladsanchez
Beautiful indeed!

